Officials on the Hawaiian island of Maui have initiated door-to-door evacuations and sounded emergency sirens as a wildfire threatened residents on Tuesday.
The 4-acre (1.6-hectare) blaze was first reported near the north shore town of Paia at 1.30pm, with no containment estimates immediately available.
The Maui Emergency Management Agency issued an urgent alert, warning: “Leave immediately! There is a dangerous threat to life and property.”
Paia, a former sugar plantation town popular with windsurfers, is situated on the opposite side of the island from Lahaina, which was destroyed by a deadly wildfire in 2023.
Paia resident Rod Antone described the situation as “nerve-wracking” as he worked to coordinate the evacuation of his elderly parents.
“Hopefully nothing happens to the neighborhood,” he added. Mr Antone, working in a county building in Wailuku, listened to radio updates but did not hear the sirens – a detail that echoes the controversy surrounding Maui County officials’ failure to activate them before the Lahaina inferno last year.
Antone noted that winds didn’t feel particularly strong Tuesday, unlike in August 2023 when wind-whipped flames burned Lahaina and left 102 people dead. But like Lahaina, Paia is surrounded by dry brush, he said.
The Maui Fire Department was using two helicopters to help fight the blaze. During the Lahaina fire, helicopters were grounded due to the strong winds.
The American Red Cross was setting up evacuation sites, the county said.
When traffic out of Paia started building, Wayne Thibaudeau decided to open a gate to give motorists an alternate evacuation route. Thibaudeau is one of the owners of Paia Sugar Mill, which closed in 2000 and is being renovated.
The route takes motorists through old sugarcane fields.
There was a steady stream of “cars packed with people” using the route, he said.
A report on the Lahaina fire said that some back roads that could have provided an alternative escape were blocked by locked gates.
