Residents return to find homes in ruin from Hawaii fire

LAHAINA - People who fled the ferocious wildfire that tore through a picturesque Hawaiian town began returning Friday to find their homes in ashes.

Dazed residents picked through the blackened remains of houses, looking for anything familiar that might have survived the fury of a blaze that claimed at least 67 lives and wiped out hundreds of buildings.

For some there was elation as they tearfully reconnected with neighbors they feared might not have gotten out alive.

"I can't believe you made it," one woman told another as they hugged amid the ruins of a once 12,000-strong town.

Others wandered in stunned silence trying to take in the enormity of the destruction.

For some of the very luckiest, there was joy, albeit tempered by the scale of the tragedy that now counts as the worst disaster ever to hit the state of Hawaii.

"I just couldn't believe it," Keith Todd told AFP after finding his house intact.

"I'm so grateful, but at the same time it's so devastating." Todd, 64, discovered his house and his neighbor's house untouched, and his solar panels providing electricity to the fridge, which was still dispensing ice on demand.

But all around were black ashes, the charred remains of a town that was once the proud home to the Hawaiian royal family.

Anthony La Puente said the shock of finding his home burned to nothing was profound.

"It sucks not being able to find the things you grew up with, or the things you remember," he told AFP of the house he had lived in for 16 years.

"The only thing I can say is that it hurts. It takes a toll on you emotionally," the 44-year-old said.

La Puente dug through the still warm ashes of his home, picking out a Starbucks tumbler that had survived, but despairing at the loss of irreplaceable things.

"I had packed up my dad's belongings, but it was too difficult. And now it's gone." The confirmed toll rose to 67 on Friday, surpassing the number of people killed when a tsunami struck the Big Island in 1960.

"Without a doubt, there will be more fatalities. We don't know ultimately how many will have occurred," Governor Josh Green said.

Crews from Honolulu arrived on Maui along with search and rescue teams equipped with K-9 cadaver dogs, Maui County said.

Residents were being allowed back in under heavy restrictions, with the county announcing an overnight curfew.

"These measures include no unauthorized public access beyond barricaded areas and a curfew from 10:00pm to 6:00am daily in historic Lahaina town and affected areas," the government said.

"The curfew is intended to protect residences and property." Todd said he would be staying at his home because he was worried that looters might try to take what he had.

Firefighters were continuing to extinguish flare-ups and contain wildfires in Lahaina, with spot blazes evident to AFP as a team walked through the town.

Maui County Police Chief John Pelletier said Thursday that as many as 1,000 people could be unaccounted for, though he stressed that this did not mean they were missing or dead.

Communications in the western part of the island remains tricky, and Pelletier said many of those whose whereabouts were not known could simply be out of reach.

The fires follow other extreme weather events in North America this summer, with record-breaking wildfires still burning across Canada and a major heat wave baking the US southwest.

Europe and parts of Asia have also endured soaring temperatures, with major fires and floods wreaking havoc.

Thousands have been left homeless by the devastating fire, and the governor told reporters on Thursday that a massive operation was swinging into action to find accommodations.

"We are going to need to house thousands of people," he told a press conference.

President Joe Biden on Thursday declared the fires a "major disaster" and unblocked federal aid for relief efforts, with rebuilding expected to take years. - AFP