Wind & Fire: Any GetBig members in Hawaii???

[JustPlaneJane]

I worked in HFD for 26 years and retired as a Battalion Chief a few years ago. Still have a lot of friends and connections there. The fires are on 2 islands, the Big Island and on Maui. The BI fires are mostly burning in open land and not a major threat to homes or lives. The Maui fires have destroyed a lot of homes, killed a bunch of people and destroyed the historic town of Lahaina. It was an old whalers village with a lot of history... really sad.

I have stayed in Kaanapali many times and now my house is near Pahoa.

Lahaina was such a cool little place. Did you work as far south as Kihei ?

[Ssxa]

I have stayed in Kaanapali many times and now my house is near Pahoa.

Lahaina was such a cool little place. Did you work as far south as Kihei ?

I worked on the Big Island. When I was chief my district was from Kohala all the way to Ocean View. I did go over and do training on Maui with some of our crews and when we did, it was held at the Lahaina station. Pahoa has seen its fair share of disasters too, just nothing of this scale.

[Ssxa]

I know people who were there for a wedding. They’re safe but still haven’t gotten out. They’re by the light green dot on the lower left:

Looks like they are in Wailea... luckily they were away from all the chaos.

[jwb]

I worked on the Big Island. When I was chief my district was from Kohala all the way to Ocean View. I did go over and do training on Maui with some of our crews and when we did, it was held at the Lahaina station. Pahoa has seen its fair share of disasters too, just nothing of this scale.

why are the fire trucks yellow in Hawaii?

[Agnostic007]

You should get the actual facts before saying something like this.  Nobody was riding out the storm.  This fire happened incredibly fast and was fueled by strong winds.  The entire town of Lahaina is gone.  Over 50 confirmed deaths.  Over 1000 people missing.  Hundreds of businesses and homes destroyed.  People were jumping in the ocean to escape the fire and had to be rescued.  An absolute tragedy.

Was thinking the same thing

[Humble Narcissist]

Not anymore.

Brutal.

[bhank]

My Buddy Patrick lives in Maui and was sending me some photos from Lahaina. The loss of Lahaina is bad as it was the seat of the Hawaiian Kingdom, and the Palace is there very old historic town. I looked at buying there guess I am glad I didn't. There are no active volcanoes on Maui the problem is those are non native grasses that have been introduced post western agriculture. They had to build aqueducts to bring water to central Maui sugar cane production the sugar cane company just left Maui now the land is all dry grasslands not the native foliage that is why they have more wildfires now. Water is a restricted resource on the islands and they diverted it's natural path and cut down the native foliage to create western style agriculture which has now been abandoned leaving dry grasslands Maui is not meant to have dry grasslands.