About 1,000 people missing in devastating Hawaii wildfire

About 1,000 people are missing in the devastating Hawaii wildfire whose death toll has climbed to at least 55 – including a disabled veteran who sent his family a terrifying photo of raging flames near his home.

Gov. Josh Green told reporters Thursday night that around 1,000 people were still unaccounted for in what was becoming the deadliest disaster in the Aloha State’s history.

“It doesn’t mean that many have passed … we can’t contact them, we can’t know,” the governor explained of scenes of devastation that look “like a bomb” went off.

“​Here’s the challenge: there’s no power, no internet, no phone, no radio. You compound some of that. So when we’re speaking to our officers, we need them to get a (satellite) phone,” Green continued.

Even so, “We are seeing loss of life here,” he acknowledged.

“As you know, the number has been rising, and we will continue to see loss of life” along with “many hundreds of homes” obliterated.

“That’s going to take a great deal of time to recover from. But that’s why we come together. We come together to give comfort to people,” added Green.

The governor toured the historic town of Lahaina, which was decimated by the fire after more than 1,000 buildings were destroyed, Hawaii News Now reported.

“It’s a heartbreaking day. Without a doubt, what we saw is catastrophic,” Green said.

“When you see the full extent of the destruction in Lahaina, it will shock you. It does appear like a bomb and fire went off, if I may,” he said at the news conference.

“And all of the buildings virtually are gonna have to be rebuilt. It will be a new Lahaina that Maui builds in its own image, with its own values,” he said, as he called for hoteliers and homeowners to help the displaced.

One family is desperately trying to locate a disabled veteran who evacuated his home on Wednesday.

Brittany Talley told CNN that her grandfather, Timm “TK” Williams Sr., 66, who uses a wheelchair and crutches, sent the family a dramatic photo of the fire creeping toward him in Maui as he was evacuating.

“He was attempting to make it to a shelter, but all of the roads were blocked,” Talley told the network. “​He would not be able to run or move quickly if needed to.”

Williams’ daughter, Nikki White, posted a photo of him on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, where she pleaded for help in the search.

“He was last known to be driving away from the Kaanapali area seeking shelter in a white SUV. We have not heard from him since 4pm est yesterday,” White wrote.

Meanwhile, Maui residents asked why the state’s famous emergency warning system didn’t alert them as the flames raced toward their homes.

Hawaii emergency management records show no indication that the sirens were triggered by the wildfire, officials confirmed Thursday.

The state boasts what it describes as the largest integrated public safety warning system in the world, with about 400 sirens located across the island chain to alert residents to natural disasters and other threats.

But many of Lahaina’s survivors said at evacuation centers that they didn’t hear any sirens and only realized they were in peril when they saw flames or heard explosions.

Thomas Leonard, a 70-year-old retired postal worker from Lahaina, didn’t know about the fire until he smelled smoke.

The town had lost power and cell phone service and residents were left with no real-time information about the danger.

Leonard tried to leave in his Jeep, but had to abandon the vehicle and run to the shore when cars nearby began exploding. He hid behind a seawall for several hours as wind blew hot ash and cinders over him.

Firefighters eventually escorted him and other survivors through the flames to safety.

Adam Weintraub, a spokesperson for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, said that the department’s records don’t show that Maui’s warning sirens were triggered Tuesday.

Instead, the county used emergency alerts sent to cell phones, TVs and radio stations, he said.

Maui Fire Chief Brad Ventura said the wildfire spread so quickly from brush to neighborhood that it was impossible to get messages to the emergency management agencies responsible for sending alerts.

Maui’s firefighting efforts also may also have been hampered by a small staff, said Bobby Lee, president of the Hawaii Firefighters Association.

The maximum of 65 firefighters working at any given time in Maui County are responsible for fighting fires on three islands — Maui, Molokai and Lanai — he noted.

They have about 13 fire engines and two ladder trucks, but they are all designed for on-road use, Lee said.

That means the firefighters can’t attack brush fires thoroughly before they reach roads or populated areas, he said.

The high winds caused by Hurricane Dora made that extremely difficult, Lee added.

“You’re basically dealing with trying to fight a blowtorch,” Lee said. “You’ve got to be careful — you don’t want to get caught downwind from that, because you’re going to get run over in a wind-driven fire of that magnitude.”

The wildfire is already the state’s deadliest natural disaster since a 1960 tsunami, which killed 61 people on the Big Island.

It also is the deadliest US wildfire since the 2018 Camp Fire in California, which killed at least 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise.

President Joe Biden, who declared a major disaster on Maui, pledged that the federal response will ensure that “anyone who’s lost a loved one, or whose home has been damaged or destroyed, is going to get help immediately.”  

With Post Wires