Posted on 08/13/2023 6:28:52 AM PDT by Carriage Hill
The fire in Lahaina is now the deadliest American wildfire in more than 100 years, with more than 5,000 struck turned being damaged or destroyed. Of the affected buildings, nearly 90% have been reported as being residential structures.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxweather.com ...
Why?
The sad thing is, it will be wall-to-wall 23-story condos now, no stopping anyone from convincing some property owner of a one-story shopping block from pocketing his insurance AND taking the millon from a Chinese developer. It will only take one and the rest will follow.
That is the big question. Not everyone has a cell phone. Survivors were saying cell service was dead.
I imagine a wind blowing at 80 mph could move flames pretty fast over land and even far out into a bay where hundreds of boats were docked.
I saw someone on television who was doing a fundraiser to help raise money for disaster relief. She used to live on Maui. She said they want to keep Hawaiian lands in Hawaiian hands.
Apparently there was already talk about what’s going to happen with rebuilding on that island ,and who is going to do that rebuilding, and what they’re going to build there.
I suspect if the money is Right, some of the owners of the land May well just want to sell out , pocket the money and let developers, Chinese or otherwise ,do what they want to do there.
If you’re going to build a model 15 minute city, you have to clear out the old stuff first.
All emergency officers happened to be off island when the fire hit.
Coincidence?
Surprised they're this inept. But again, this is Hawaii.
This is just a bump in the road of many catastrophes in history. There have been worse in fires alone.
Some perspective here:
The interesting thing is what comes after the fire.
The boats caught fire from the large burning embers being blown around by 60-80 mph winds. Embers are a normal way for fire to spread.
On various local boards I’ve read that people are conditioned to run for the hills there because the sirens mean tsunami and it would possibly confuse the issues. Not sure how true that is, but it was repeatedly mentioned.
Wow, you’re right. I never thought of that.
Interesting point. Hadn’t really thought about before. Being volcanic islands, everything alive came from somewhere else.
Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?
It's an actual count of the physical remains they've discovered so far.
Hurricane force winds, falling embers and firebrands.
They could be carried by swallows.
“...Also how did all the boats anchored out in the harbor catch fire?”
I saw before/after pics of the harbor, and all boats were gone. They all burned? Didn’t know that...
“Asides - the first time Is visited west Maui the hillsides above Lahaina were lush cane fields, which were purposely burned every year after being harvested. In the nineties all cane & most pineapple was exported to central America and the Philippines, leaving the fields dry tinderboxes.”
I think the lack of cane and pineapple fields will turn out to be a major factor in this.
Can’t imagine a pineapple field burning. A cane field at the right stage of growth will certainly burn. But you would have some fields plowed and fallow, some with very short new cane and some that would burn.
There’s a lot suspicious about that fire. But, the boats don’t surprise me. There’s a lot flammable on an a boat. Canvas, sails, upholstery, dinghies and such. Some cruisers store fuel cans on deck. Wind blown flame and ashes could easily start any them on fire. Once one boats lit, it could spread quickly to others.
I was once out on a boat for a fireworks show. Some people got carried away and started launching signal flares. One descended and set a boats bimini on fire. Doesn’t take much some times.
African or European?
Some stupid with a flare gun burned the whole place to the ground...
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