Cars parked helter-skelter along Front Street’s breakwall point to a scene of chaotic desperation by evacuees trying to escape the fast-moving fire as it swept over the north end of town. Inland is the destroyed Outlets of Maui complex. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
The Maui News
A helicopter overflight of Lahaina Thursday morning revealed a stunning level of devastation, one nearly impossible to comprehend.
Tuesday’s raging, windswept fire has transformed much of the vibrant port town into a moonscape of gray ash. Block after block, homes, businesses and apartments from Puamana to Wahikuli are just … gone. The Pioneer Inn is a powdery smudge and King Kamehameha III Elementary School is battered and gutted. Between them, Lahaina’s famed banyan tree looms black as a lump of charcoal.
The scenes conjure images of bombed-out cities during the height of World War II. How did people survive? How many precious lives were lost to the fire?
Occasionally amid the rubble, stands an improbable dwelling or two that was somehow unscathed by the fast-moving inferno. Each missing house and apartment serves as a harsh reminder of all the individuals and families that have been displaced. They not only lost their homes, but also most of their belongings. Where will they all shelter? Where will they work and shop and go to school? What will happen to the entrepreneurs, shopkeepers and service providers?
With nearly every home and apartment on every block turned to ash, devastation lines Lahainaluna Road Wednesday. At the top right, smoke rises from the destroyed Kaiaulu o Kupuohi housing complex.
Passing over Lahaina, worries for Lahaina and its people, questions of what comes next, whirled nearly as fast as the rotors above.
The old Chart House building at the north end of Front Street is burned to the ground, along with most of the homes uphill and around it Thursday.
While Waiola Church’s roof is gone, a few of its walls still stand.
King Kamehameha III Elementary School’s tattered and twisted buildings front decimated Lahaina Harbor Thursday.
The fire raced downhill between the Kahoma Stream Flood Control channel and Lahainaluna Road to consume nearly every structure in its path. This photo was taken from a helicopter Thursday morning. At the right, across the channel, smoke rises from the destroyed Kaiaulu o Kupuohi housing complex.
The fire consumed a baseyard full of vehicles at ADP Towing.
The burned Weinberg Court Apartments are roofless and windowless Thursday.
Today's breaking news and more in your inbox
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7rq3UoqWer6NjsLC5jqecsKtfobykrctmpZ6vo2R%2FcX6SaGdxZ5%2BjsKZ5wGatopqilru1edOorqdlnJa1orXNmmSrnZSqsKawjK2mZpmjnXw%3D