High winds from a hurricane fed fires in Maui, HI. A fire swept through Lahaina Town. Once the capital of Hawaii this place was really popular with tourists and locals. I can't believe the amount of destruction that happened in less than 12 hours.
this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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How could this have happened? Shouldn't all the building codes we have effectively prevent something like this???
Lahaia town is a historic town (as stated in the article), so i assume they did not yet have the same standards as they do today yet.
Lahaina was a old historic town, many of the buildings weren't updated to code. Especially on Front Street where most of the damage seems to be
Lots of historic buildings here but even if they were up to today's standards they wouldn't have had a chance. This fire was fueled by drought and 80mph winds. California has tons of new buildings that burn down with winds half that speed. It was just a crazy force moving through.
Do sea lions live in Hawaii?
Keep in mind Lahaina is laid out like a long thin strip between the ocean and a bypass road.
Wildfire came from the other side of the bypass and came towards the ocean. So likely hit the whole town all at once. Front street is the Main Street parallel to the ocean and cars would get stuck in a traffic jam easily.
Wouldn’t take long for the fire to cross the bypass and make it all the way to the ocean.