New evacuations as wildfires death toll rises to 67
New evacuations are underway in Hawaii, where firefighters are grappling with deadly blazes which have killed more than 60 people.
Authorities have been accused of failing residents after allegations that siren warnings did not go off, with some locals saying they only knew wildfires were close because they smelled smoke.
The death toll rose to 67 overnight and is expected to continue to climb, making it Hawaii’s deadliest natural disaster. Hundreds of people are still unaccounted for.
The fires, fanned by the winds of a distant hurricane, have devastated the resort destination island of Maui, while neighbouring Big Island and Oahu have also faced blazes which have now been brought under control.
The town of Lahaina on Maui has been turned to rubble and ash, with more than 1,700 buildings and billions of dollars in property destroyed. Neighbourhoods in the west of the town have been razed to the ground, with 2,000 people evacuated to shelters.
Lahaina’s mayor said the town is like a “war zone”, likening the area to the aftermath of a bombing.
Residents were forced to dive into the ocean to escape the flames, with one local telling i that the places she knew had been “wiped off the map” and that she feared many elderly people and families would have been unable to escape.
Lahaina residents were briefly allowed to return home to assess the scale of the damage, with the queue spanning more than a mile. However, some of the town is only accessible to search and rescue crews and a curfew is in place from 10pm to 6am local time.
Fresh evacuations were underway on Saturday as the flames crept closer to the town of Kaanapali.
Maui Police Department confirmed the evacuation on Facebook, saying their priority was to “ensure the safety of the community and first responders”.
West Maui, home to Lahaina and Kaanapali still does not have power or water.
Hawaii has long experienced environmental disasters and has the largest integrated outdoor public safety warning system in the world, with roughly 400 sirens stationed across the island chain to alert people to threats.
However, Adam Weintraub, a spokesman for Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, confirmed that the wildfires did not appear to have activated sirens. The county instead relied on mobile phone and media alerts.
President Joe Biden has pledged that the federal response will ensure that “anyone who’s lost a loved one, or whose home has been damaged or destroyed, is going to get help immediately”.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos donated $100m (£79m) to help the fire victims, saying he and his partner Lauren Sanchez were “thinking of all the families that have lost so much and a community that has been left devastated.”