Wildfires

Police say a new fire burning on the Hawaii island of Maui has triggered the evacuation of a community to the northeast of the area that burned earlier this week. the Maui Police Department says the fire prompted the evacuation of people in Kaanapali in West Maui on Friday night. No details of the evacuation were immediately provided. Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez’s office will be conducting a comprehensive review of decision-making and standing policies leading up to, during and after the wildfires. Lopez announced the review in a statement Friday. The Maui County water agency director also said Friday that hundreds of pipes have been damaged by the wildfires. Maui County officials say 67 people are confirmed dead from wildfires burning in Hawaii.

Police say a new fire burning on the Hawaii island of Maui on Friday night has triggered evacuations of a community to the northeast of the area that burned earlier this week. The Maui Police Department says the fire prompted the evacuation of people in Kaanapali in West Maui. No details of the evacuation were immediately provided. The number of confirmed deaths from the Maui wildfires has increased to 67. Maui County officials on Friday confirmed an additional 12 deaths as of the afternoon. Officials say the fire is not yet contained. Associated Press journalists witnessed the destruction in Lahaina on Friday. The tourism destination was mostly destroyed by the blaze. Many survivors of the fire say they did not receive a warning that gave them enough time to flee.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green says 53 people were killed in the devastating Maui wildfires, and the death toll will likely continue to rise. Green says search and rescue operations are continuing, and officials expect it will become the state’s deadliest natural disaster since a 1961 tsunami killed 61 people on the Big Island. More than 1,000 structures were destroyed by fires that are still burning in Lahaina and surrounding areas. Green told The Associated Press that “Lahaina, with a few rare exceptions, has been burned down.”

A dangerous mix of conditions appear to have combined to make the wildfires blazing a path of destruction in Hawaii particularly damaging, including flash drought, high winds, low humidity and dry vegetation. Experts say climate change is increasing the likelihood of more extreme weather events like what’s playing out on the island of Maui, where dozens of people have been killed and a historic tourist town was devastated. Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia’s faculty of forestry. She says climate change is leading to “these unpredictable or unforeseen combinations that we’re seeing right now and that are fueling this extreme fire weather.”

Emergency officials say two firefighting helicopters collided while responding to a blaze in the desert east of Los Angeles, sending one to the ground in a crash that killed all three people on board. The larger helicopter landed safely after Sunday's collision. Cal Fire says the victims included an assistant chief, a fire captain and a contract pilot. A Cal Fire spokesperson says conditions were clear and breezy at the time of the collision. The crash itself caused another fire, which spread to 4 acres before it was extinguished. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.