Devastating Maui fires difficult to predict, official says

The communication director of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said Thursday that high winds have made it difficult to predict where flames will go as devastating wildfires tear through Maui, killing at least 36 people.

“Our search and rescue teams — as they’ve gained entrance into various areas that were cut off by the fire before — they’re making the best progress they can,” Adam Weintraub said on NBC’s “Today” show Thursday morning. “We are hoping for the best, but we’re not sure what the outcome will be.”

As the wildfires stretch into their third day, Weintraub said the search and rescue teams have been deployed for about 48 hours and are facing “extreme challenges” in the field.

“It reminded me [of] some of the aerial photos of what we saw in photos from World War II of the firestorm in Dresden,” Weintraub said. “This was very extreme fire behavior.”

He said the agency had a “good advance picture” from the National Weather Service that the region would face the “potential for extreme fire behavior,” but the flames were unpredictable in the wind environment.

“When you get a flame in dry vegetation, in low humidity, in that kind of a wind environment, the flames can go anywhere,” Weintraub said.

President Biden ordered “all available Federal assets” to support the response to the wildfires on Wednesday, including the U.S. Coast Guard and the Navy’s 3rd Fleet.

Dozens of people have been injured, and at least 271 structures have been damaged or destroyed, Maui County officials said.