As of this morning, the official death toll for wildfires in Maui County, Hawaii has reached 36. Thousands of Hawaiians and tourists have fled blazes driven by hurricane-strength winds, low humidity and drought conditions – all conditions that can be attributed to climate change. The speed at which the wildfire spread into the historic coastal town of Lahaina left locals running into the ocean to escape the flames. Lahaina, Hawaii’s historic capital, has burned to the ground. “All of Lahaina is burnt to a crisp. It’s like an apocalypse,” Mason Jarvi, a local resident, tells the Guardian. There have also been fires on Big Island, but so far they haven’t caused injuries or destroyed homes. Hawaii joins Greece, Spain, Portugal and western Canada on the growing list of regions devastated by wildfires this summer.
Photograph Getty