Smokey the Bear would be very, very mad. The wildfire that destroyed the historic Lahaina community on Maui after a grass fire started by downed power lines reflared after firefighters thought they had extinguished it, CBS News reports.
The fire, which claimed 101 lives, spread rapidly on the afternoon of August 8th, 2023 from an area where firefighters had responded to a downed power line and fire that morning. While firefighters may have extinguished the original fire, it’s unclear from the findings if the area where teams spent three hours putting out the grass fire rekindled due to high winds, or if a spark drifted to a nearby gully and grew from there.
After flames were spotted again at the site, crews arrived within minutes, but fast, swirling winds fueled the fire and quickly grew out of control.