The Maui wildfires just became the deadliest wildfire in Hawaii, but it
doesn’t end there
By Zirui Wang ’29, Pollard Middle School
Maximus Yarawamai was one of the thousands of people from Hawaii who wasn’t prepared for the terrifying event on August 8. On that day, hurricane Dora brought winds up to 81 miles per hour in Maui, and created widespread flames that were difficult to escape. According to TIME, the fire is one of the worst natural disasters in all of Hawaii’s history.
The wildfire wiped all power and the communication from thousands of people, with death counts up to at least 110 as of August 17. The temperature reached up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The fire burned more than 2,500 acres of land, and over 2,200 buildings have been destroyed by the inferno. According to Josh Green, governor of Hawaii, about 86 percent of destroyed buildings are residential.
“A lot of people had to run and left all they had behind. They don’t have their phones – the phones are incinerated," Green said.
According to the National Fire Protection Association, the Maui wildfire is the deadliest fire in the US in over 100 years. Meanwhile, the wildfire in Canada that started in late April, sent 70 million US citizens on air quality alert. Wildfires in California burnt over 100,000 acres of land. This is just a series of events that shows the increasing intensity of wildfires and natural disasters as a result of global warming. When the trend inevitably continues, even the regularity of natural disasters will rise.
“The frequency of disasters caused by heat waves, tropical cyclones and wildfires will increase considerably.” the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.
Experts also warn that natural disasters like the Maui wildfire will happen more frequently and with higher intensity due to climate change. A Maui county report from 2021 found that incidents caused by fires on the island have increased in the past decade. Hawaii’s acre burnage before the Maui wildfire was at 50,000 acres during 2019. While the burnage was barely over 10,000 in 2007.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the increasing amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is likely to increase temperatures all around the world. And hotter and drier temperatures can lead to higher risk of wildfires. From the burning of fossil fuels to the use of cars, greenhouse gasses release into the air and cause global warming.
Many don’t think that global warming will affect their community. Many aren’t prepared for devastation similar to that in Maui. But if the emission of greenhouse gasses doesn't decrease, these events will become more prevalent in the future.
“I think we never thought that this would happen in Hawaii,” Yarawamai, a Hawaii local, said. “We've had fires but not this magnitude.”
The wildfire wiped all power and the communication from thousands of people, with death counts up to at least 110 as of August 17. The temperature reached up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The fire burned more than 2,500 acres of land, and over 2,200 buildings have been destroyed by the inferno. According to Josh Green, governor of Hawaii, about 86 percent of destroyed buildings are residential.
“A lot of people had to run and left all they had behind. They don’t have their phones – the phones are incinerated," Green said.
According to the National Fire Protection Association, the Maui wildfire is the deadliest fire in the US in over 100 years. Meanwhile, the wildfire in Canada that started in late April, sent 70 million US citizens on air quality alert. Wildfires in California burnt over 100,000 acres of land. This is just a series of events that shows the increasing intensity of wildfires and natural disasters as a result of global warming. When the trend inevitably continues, even the regularity of natural disasters will rise.
“The frequency of disasters caused by heat waves, tropical cyclones and wildfires will increase considerably.” the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.
Experts also warn that natural disasters like the Maui wildfire will happen more frequently and with higher intensity due to climate change. A Maui county report from 2021 found that incidents caused by fires on the island have increased in the past decade. Hawaii’s acre burnage before the Maui wildfire was at 50,000 acres during 2019. While the burnage was barely over 10,000 in 2007.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the increasing amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is likely to increase temperatures all around the world. And hotter and drier temperatures can lead to higher risk of wildfires. From the burning of fossil fuels to the use of cars, greenhouse gasses release into the air and cause global warming.
Many don’t think that global warming will affect their community. Many aren’t prepared for devastation similar to that in Maui. But if the emission of greenhouse gasses doesn't decrease, these events will become more prevalent in the future.
“I think we never thought that this would happen in Hawaii,” Yarawamai, a Hawaii local, said. “We've had fires but not this magnitude.”
Zirui Wang is participant of the First to the Frontpage Summer of 2023 program.