Maui, Hawaii Fires

[above_all]

"Over Aug. 7 to 9, gale-force wind gusts reached 67 miles per hour (108 kilometres per hour) in Maui County, according to the National Weather Service. The fierce winds uprooted trees and roiled seas."

https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2023-08-21/how-the-hawaii-wildfires-spread-so-quickly#:~:text=Over Aug. 7 to 9,uprooted trees and roiled seas.

You can't fly firefighting helicopters and airplanes in gale-force wind gusts. Extremely dry conditions coupled with hurricane force wind gusts contributed to this disaster. One of the articles said the fire traveled a mile per minute; that's 60 mph. A five square mile area would last how long? How would firefighters fight that? Even if they had water. By the time an alarm could have gone out went, the fire would have probably overrun the community.

This is one of those once in a 100 year disasters. It's not climate change. It was the perfect storm. I imagine Hawaii's emergency warning systems are geared toward hurricanes, volcanoes, tsunamis. I expect wildfires weren't really even in the picture. Going to be a lot of armchair quarterbacking. Tragic; over 1,000 lives gone in minutes.

Had a similar thing in Gatlinburg a few years ago. The saving grace was rain rolled in at 2:00 am.
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news...nburg-fire-how-fast-did-winds-blow/850944001/

 

[thevalueman]

when it boils down. I believe we will find that to aid firefighters(if there were any) were was nothing.....I believe that there was a total breakdown of the green folks,( it's Hawaii) and as I cannot get a grip on this....BUT just maybe, it was allowed to push an agenda...I cannot think they would do that....like the water guy....too hard to believe...the "land grab" is simply a consequence of what was possibly allowed to happen...

 

[rOmiLaYu]

and as I cannot get a grip on this....BUT just maybe, it was allowed to push an agenda...I cannot think they would do that....like the water guy....too hard to believe...

What's "too hard to believe" for me is a fire that is moving 60mph. I didn't have a context for the hurricane off their coast and the winds blowing as hard as they were. But imagine for a moment a full blown structure fire with 60mph winds feeding it. There's no doubt in my mind that failures all over, to include pumping stations for the water, EMS, and comms all would have been destroyed by something like that. Imagine being on the interstate and the fire is consuming the woods on either side at the same speed as you are passing them. That's terrifying.

 

[aFarewellToKings]

.

It would appear that phone/email alerts were sent out. At least MEMA claims they were. Residents seem to say that they never got them.

On an island like Maui where would you put the cell towers? On the hills. Where the fire came from.

 

[aFarewellToKings]

I heard on the radio this morning that they are saying over 800 people are still missing?

It's been a week now, right? 114 dead and over 800 missing?


So what does that mean? Seems like a really large number of people to be "missing." So is the assumption that they are missing because they have failed to report in and search and rescue have failed to find their bodies?

So is the death count going to sky rocket?

Most of burned structures are nothing but ash and bits of metal.
What would be left of a body in there?
They may never know.

 

[rOmiLaYu]

Most of burned structures are nothing but ash and bits of metal.
What would be left of a body in there?
They may never know.

Yeah....I'm beginning to see that. "114 dead and 800ish missing" is a lot better optics than "1,000 feared dead."

 

[BDR1]

Ok, why can’t the island get water pumps out there to pump water from the ocean up to the land and save lives and homes… seems like a Buncha bull**** to me

 

[rOmiLaYu]

Ok, why can’t the island get water pumps out there to pump water from the ocean up to the land and save lives and homes… seems like a Buncha bull**** to me

For one, saltwater is corrosive. Maintaining equipment that comes into contact with it is expensive and time consuming.

But even assuming they had pumps and were putting salt water onto the blaze, it sounds like it would have been peeing in the wind. A few hoses spraying water isn't going to stop a 60mph fire.

 

[BHPSteel]

I'm not a firefighter, and I don't even play one in the movies, but I'd have at least thought that once the fire was under way, SOMEONE in an emergency response role would have started thinking about fire breaks .

 

[rOmiLaYu]

I'm not a firefighter, and I don't even play one in the movies, but I'd have at least thought that once the fire was under way, SOMEONE in an emergency response role would have started thinking about fire breaks .

It sounds like it was Blackhawk Down for them. Reports of them having to abandon equipment because they were being surrounded. The area that burned in Lahiana is relatively small. Just a few square miles....and if the flames were moving a mile per minute, well, it was problem over and done with before a break could have even been dug.