Thousands of tourists are scrambling to get off Hawaii’s Maui Island as wildfires burnt a historic holiday town “to a crisp” and sparked a major emergency.
Multiple neighbourhoods were consumed by flames, including Maui’s tourist resort of Lahaina, as residents told of the “worst disaster” they had ever seen.
Aerial footage shows the extent of the destruction in coastal Lahaina after the town was razed, leaving a smouldering black landscape.
Some 271 structures were damaged or destroyed, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported, citing official reports from flyovers conducted by the US Civil Air Patrol and the Maui Fire Department.
Historic Lahaina was the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom from 1820 to 1845 and was also a major whaling port.
“We just had the worst disaster I’ve ever seen. All of Lahaina is burnt to a crisp. It’s like an apocalypse,” said Lahaina resident Mason Jarvi, who escaped from the city.
Mr Jarvi took pictures of the ashen-coloured destruction along the Lahaina waterfront. Wearing shorts, he also showed blisters on his thigh that he said he suffered when riding through flames on his electric bike to save his dog.
Aerial video showed pillars of smoke rising from block after block of Lahaina, the largest tourist destination on Maui and home to multiple large hotels.
“It’s like an area was bombed. It’s like a war zone,” said helicopter pilot Richard Olsten, according to Hawaii News Now.
With firefighters battling three major blazes, western Maui was closed to all but emergency workers and evacuees.
New brushfires were also reported on Hawaii’s Big Island, whipped up by hurricane winds and fuelled by dry conditions.
At least 4000 tourists were still trying to leave western Maui in the panic. State officials were working to evacuate tourists to another island.
Some 2000 travellers were sheltering at the Kahului Airport.
At least 16 roads were closed, but the Maui airport was still operating fully and airlines were dropping fares and offering waivers to get people off the island.
The White House issued a message of condolence from President Joe Biden, who praised the work of firefighters and ordered “all available Federal assets on the Islands to help with response”.
The Coast Guard and Navy were helping with the rescues while the Marines were providing Black Hawk helicopters for firefighting.
Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said the main focus now was to “save lives” after six people were confirmed to have died in Maui’s unexpected inferno.
Mayor Bissen had few details about the deaths.
Some people were forced to jump into the ocean to escape the smoke and fire conditions, prompting the US Coast Guard to rescue them.
The state opened at least five evacuation shelters, officials said. More than 2,100 people were housed overnight in four emergency shelters.
The National Weather Service said the current brush fires arose from a mix of conditions: dry vegetation, strong winds, and low humidity.
Officials said the winds from Hurricane Dora had fanned the flames across the state.
The storm was about 1279km miles south-south west of Hawaii as of 0100 AEST Thursday, the National Hurricane Centre said.
Ian Martin, an NWS forecaster in Honolulu, told Reuters that the worst of the high winds should end by late Wednesday or early Thursday (local time).
