Hawaii wildfires: Your questions answered

1. Our reporters - including the team on the ground - are answering your questions about deadly wildfires in the US state of Hawaii
2. The death toll has risen to 99 and could double over the next 10 days, the state's governor has warned
3. Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for as forensic teams continue to find human remains on the island of Maui
4. It was declared the deadliest US wildfire for a century, and also destroyed much of the historic town of Lahaina
5. The blazes spread from dry grasslands outside Lahaina last week, causing billions of dollars' worth of damage as well as claiming human lives

Thanks for joining us

Marita Moloney

Live reporter

We're going to wrap up our live page now, thank you for sending in your questions on the wildfires in Hawaii.

Thanks also to our colleagues in Maui and other teams across the BBC who brought their expertise to our coverage.

We hope we answered a lot of the queries you have on the disaster, but there's also plenty of brilliant pieces across the site if you want to read more:

• What caused the Hawaii wildfires?
• Maui fires fan tensions on Hawaiian island
• When a 'fire hurricane' hit, Maui's warning sirens never sounded
• Maps and before and after images reveal Maui devastation

Today's page was helmed from London by myself, Jamie Whitehead and Ali Abbas Ahmadi. Thanks for joining us.

What parts of Hawaii were affected?

Ali Abbas Ahmadi

Live reporter

Reuters

Lahaina in Maui was worst affected by the fires

Wildfires have most affected Maui and Big Island (known as Hawaii island).

Maui was by far the worst hit, where 80% of the beach-front town of Lahaina was destroyed. At least 99 people are dead and hundreds of others are still missing.

There were no deaths on Big Island, according to Reuters, and the fires there are under control.

On 10 August, the mayor of Hawaii County Mitch Roth said in a social media post that “we are in pretty good shape” and that authorities were changing their focus to helping Maui recover.

What is the ‘energy weapon’ conspiracy?

Mike Wendling

US disinformation reporter

X (Twitter)

Several photos have circulated online appearing to show lasers or light beams emerging from fires. It’s led to allegations that the wildfires on Maui were deliberately started by a “direct energy weapon”.

These are experimental devices which do exist, but there’s no shred of evidence pointing to their use in this tragedy.

Our team has investigated the “directed energy weapon” photos circulating online.

The most viral ones are old and were taken elsewhere. They show, for instance, a controlled burn at an oil refinery in Ohio, or a transformer exploding in Chile.

Other pictures are from the Hawaii fires – but they’ve been Photoshopped.

So why would someone use fake photos to spread false rumours?

Some people appear to be trying to increase their own clout using sensational fake news. Others don’t believe in climate change.

It’s part of a regular pattern in the wake of natural disasters – committed online activists start spreading disinformation, trying to deflect and derail any discussion of human impact on the climate.

They’re not always deliberately spreading lies. Some of the misinformation merchants really do buy into their own theories, even when they fail in the face of critical thinking - or a simple online reverse image search.

You can read more here.

Could disasters like this become more common?

Georgina Rannard

Climate and science reporter

As climate change worsens, further pushing up global temperatures, it is likely to make dry and hot conditions worse.

According to the UN, there will be a global increase of extreme fires by 14% by 2030, and 50% by 2100, due to climate change and land-use change.

Some of those fires will be in places where wildfires have not been seen before, including high-latitude regions that were once too cold or wet.

How we manage wildfires will also determine how disastrous or deadly a fire becomes.

In Hawaii, residents accused authorities of not responding quickly enough to the fire, and some say they weren’t given enough time to evacuate. Firefighters also said they ran out of water meaning they were less able to control the flames.

Better land management could also help to prevent wildfires. Restoring wetlands or peatlands can retain moisture in the land or lessen the risk of drought.

And building homes at a distance from vegetation or forests, or ensuring there is open space in forests to reduce the risk of flames jumping could also help reduce risks.

How high could the death toll go in the Hawaii fires?

Ali Abbas Ahmadi

Live reporter

This is unclear, but it could rise to double the current count of 99 in the next ten days, according to Hawaii Governor Josh Green.

Rescue workers are combing through the burned areas, especially in badly damaged Lahaina – which bore the brunt of the fires. Only around 25% of the town has been searched with the help of cadaver dogs, according to the Maui police chief.

Hundreds are still missing, although many people initially on the missing list have been found safe.

Residents received no early warning about the fires, which likely contributed to the higher death toll.

Lahaina was a popular tourist town with a population of around 13,000 people as of 2020, according to the US Census Bureau. Estimates say around 80% of it is now gone.

When will Maui be ready for tourists again?

Max Matza

Reporting from Maui

Getty Images

Diana Stuller and others have been asking about the impact of the fires on tourism.

That’s a very good question, and one being debated here by local officials, business owners and the traumatised residents of Maui.

The economy is completely reliant on tourism. But in the aftermath of the worst disaster in the state’s history many feel that tourists should only come if they can be “respectful” of the suffering that is visible almost everywhere I look on the island.

Some tourists never left, although an estimated 46,000 visitors have departed by plane since the fire.

Others continue to arrive, reluctant to cancel plans made months in advance.

“Maui is not closed,” the county mayor said on Saturday, encouraging visitors to come see other parts of the island besides Lahaina.

And several business owners expressed concern that the growing anti-tourist sentiment could hurt Maui further.

Do people want to go back?

Helena Humphrey and Cai Pigliucci

Reporting from Maui

Getty Images

Residents want to return to their homes, but they know in most cases there’s nothing to go back to.

We spoke to people in shelters who said they know their homes burned down, they don’t need to go back to see it.

We met Blake Drewry, a Lahaina resident, who lost everything.

He did go back, but all he was able to salvage from the rubble was his cowboy hat.

The Maui spirit here is strong. People who are displaced have been telling us that they’ll be back, this is their home.

How long will it take to make the affected areas safe?

Georgina Rannard

Climate and science reporter

Getty Images

Residents of Hawaii are still coming to terms with the huge scale of the fires, as emergency workers continue to search for missing people and human remains.

The flames burnt through homes, buildings, cars and infrastructure, leaving behind vast amounts of combusted metal, plastic and other materials. Residents fleeing affected towns described cars, gas tanks, and tyres exploding.

Authorities are warning that the pollution left behind in the air and water could be toxic and dangerous to humans.

Hawaii’s state toxicologist Diana Felton has said it could take weeks or months to clean up the pollutants.

It can take years for towns burnt by fires to be environmentally cleaned up.

Did warning sirens go off and were they supposed to?

Holly Honderich

Reporting from Maui

EPA

A demonstration about the lack of sirens was held outside the Maui County Building on Monday

A number of you, including Tony Da Silva, Sharon Salisbury and David in Canada, have been asking about this.

All of Hawaii has a sophisticated alarm system meant to warn residents of tsunamis and other natural disasters - the largest such system in the world. Maui alone has 80 outdoor sirens, tested monthly.

But no, this wide-scale warning system was not activated last week. Officials have confirmed that no-one in local or state government even tried.

We don’t know for sure why that was. Officials have said the fire simply moved too fast - a mile a minute - for the sirens to be activated. And they’ve said that other alerts - like those direct to mobile phones and radio stations - were sent out. But with power down in West Maui in the hours before the inferno, it’s possible these alerts were missed.

And people I’ve spoken to here - survivors and their loved ones alike - are furious and heartbroken, anguished by the belief that an alert could have saved more lives.

• Read more here

Why can’t people move back?

Helena Humphrey and Cai Pigliucci

Reporting from Maui

Getty Images

A number of reasons.

In many cases there’s little to go back to. Then there’s the fact that they’re still trying to recover bodies from the rubble.

Authorities want the best chance of identifying as many victims as possible.

And of course, there are also safety concerns. The fires are not completely contained, and the wreckage could be dangerous.

These wildfires melted metal. Officials don’t want people exposed to toxic chemical waste.

After all that this community has gone through, authorities want to avoid more casualties from debris that could injure people.

What role did climate change play?

Georgina Rannard

Climate and science reporter

Reuters

Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii erupting in June

The role of climate change in the fires is complicated. Hawaii was facing a perfect storm of dry conditions and hurricane-force winds that powerfully fanned the flames, spreading them at high speed.

Globally, climate change is creating drier conditions in many places as higher temperatures suck moisture from vegetation and bake the air, making it hotter.

This year about 14% of Hawaii is suffering from severe or moderate drought, according to the US Drought Monitor. 80% of the state is classed as abnormally dry.

Scientists say that Hawaii has become drier in the last century, but they point to strong natural variability in the state’s climate.

Changes in the direction, frequency and intensity of trade winds may have affected rainfall, as well as the ongoing eruption of nearby Kīlauea volcano affecting how raindrops are formed.

The way that humans use land also contributes to wildfires. Scientists say that the introduction of non-native plants to Hawaii helped fuel the flames, as they were more likely to burn and allow fire to spread.

How many people are still missing in Maui?

Max Matza

Reporting from Maui

One week after the wildfire in Lahaina hundreds of people are still missing, down from an estimated 1,000 in the immediate aftermath.

An online list of those missing, created by a local, initially had 5,000 names on it, but most of the people on the list have since been found safe.

Of the 99 that have died, only three have been identified so far.

In the absence of more information, people here speak of those who are “lost” – referring to either those missing or presumed dead.

Some speculate that there are people who fled into the tropical mountains, and have been waiting to be found in the dense landscape.

Where will people who lost their homes go?

Holly Honderich

Reporting from Maui

Getty Images

This is still unclear.

Many in this tight-knit community have found a new home with distant family or friends - forming an “Ohana”, the Hawaiian word for family but also for a multi-family household.

One family of five I spent time with had an additional 23 relatives staying with them, all Lahaina evacuees.

In many ways, those are the lucky ones. Hundreds remain at the emergency shelters scattered across the island. Government assistance has begun to kick in, but for many it’s not enough to find temporary housing.

On Sunday, Hawaii Governor Josh Green said work would be ramped up to get displaced residents into temporary housing, including 500 hotel rooms paid for by the government.

But Maui was facing an affordability crisis even before the fires, and many worry the crisis will make an already difficult situation - finding affordable housing - impossible.

How long will it take to rebuild Lahaina?

Helena Humphrey and Cai Pigliucci

Reporting from Maui

Getty Images

Rebuilding will take a long time.

At the moment, efforts are still focused on recovery.

But it will likely take many years to rebuild, and billions of dollars. Estimates say 80% of Lahaina is gone.

Then there is the question of how to do it. Lahaina is the historic capital of the former royal kingdom of Hawaii.

Many buildings were built in the 1700s.

People we’ve been speaking to here stress that they want to make sure big developers don’t just build luxury high rises for tourists - pricing them out of their homes.

How did the fires start?

Helena Humphrey and Cai Pigliucci

Reporting from Maui

Reuters

This is a question sent to us by multiple people, including Emmanuel Dagwan in Nigeria and Yin in Japan.

It’s just not clear yet. But we do know once they started, they spread fast. The Governor of Hawaii said they burned about a mile a minute, faster than firefighters could hope to contain them.

Other things made it worse: hurricane winds coming off the Pacific, grasses which are non-native to Hawaii drying out, and drought.

It’s barely rained since we arrived here.

We're answering your questions on the Hawaii fires

Marita Moloney

Live reporter

Reuters

Thanks for joining our live page – we’re here to answer your questions about the deadly Hawaii wildfires.

These are so far known to have claimed at least 99 lives – with the island of Maui badly affected when flames reached the historic town of Lahaina last week.

We’ll be answering queries that are being routinely searched, and answering some specific enquiries that have been sent to us directly.

They include questions on how the blazes started and the extent of the damage.

Our reporters in Hawaii itself have been providing information, as have our colleagues at BBC Verify and the Climate and Science unit.