Maui wildfires: Police release 16 minutes of bodycam footage from the day blaze tore through Lahaina
Police in Maui have released harrowing bodycam footage showing officers guiding people to safety after a wildfire ripped through the city of Lahaina in August.
The video shows officers rescuing 15 people from a coffee shop, taking a seriously burned man to a nearby hospital and rescuing an elderly man from his home.
The fast-moving wildfire on August 8 killed at least 99 people and burned more than 2,000 buildings.
The fire sparked riots in the historic city of Lahaina and destroyed the popular tourist attraction that dates back to the 1700s.
The 16-minute video was released during a news conference in Wailuku and showed the bravery of officers as they evacuated the city.
Maui police have released harrowing bodycam footage showing officers guiding people to safety as a wildfire swept through the town of Lahaina in August
The fast-moving wildfire on August 8 killed at least 99 people and burned more than 2,000 structures
In part of the video, officers can be seen banging on the doors of a building before entering.
You hear an officer inside say to an older man: ‘Come on, there’s a fire. Is there anyone else here?’
The video then cuts to two police officers leading the man outside by their hands as the fire rages in the distance.
Another clip shows a thick gray, smoky sky surrounding the area as a female officer asks a resident to leave as they ask people to evacuate.
In another dramatic clip, police officers can be seen evacuating 15 people from a coffee shop and a supermarket on Front Street, a neighborhood that was largely on fire.
Officers led 15 people out of the coffee shop as smoke swirled in the air around them, loaded the group into police SUVs and took them to the Lahaina Civic Center.
In another clip, a police officer finds a badly burned man in a shopping center and puts him in the backseat of his patrol car.
“I’ll just take you straight to the hospital. That sounds good?’ The officer can be heard asking the man, who responds, “Yes.”
One video shows an officer attaching a tow strap to a metal fence blocking an escape route down a dirt road as residents use a saw to cut the fence open to allow a line of cars to pass.
In part of the video, officers can be seen banging on the doors of a building before entering
Officers led 15 people out of a coffee shop, seen here, as smoke swirled in the air around them
The fire sparked riots in the historic city of Lahaina and destroyed the popular tourist attraction that dates back to the 18th century
An aerial view shows destroyed homes and buildings burned to the ground around the harbor and Front Street in Lahaina
Although the exact cause of the disaster remains unknown, the fires were fueled by high winds from passing Hurricane Dora.
Low humidity and a prolonged drought season that saw trees dry out also contributed to the fire, officials said.
The true cause of the fire is still being proven, with the possibility that it was sparked by downed power lines that set fire to dry, invasive grasses.
An investigation by The Associated Press has found that the answer may lie in an overgrown trench beneath Hawaiian Electric Co.
Many drivers trying to escape the flames became stuck on Front Street, completely surrounded by black smoke and a wall of flames.
Low humidity and a prolonged drought season that saw trees dry out also contributed to the disaster, officials say
An aerial photo taken on August 10 shows destroyed cars in Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii
This caused countless people to jump into the water surrounding the city to escape the inferno.
In an earlier update from Governor Josh Green, he confirmed that several children were among the dead – but an exact number remains unknown.
According to Hawaii News Nowa family of four was found in a burned-out car, and the bodies of seven people were discovered in one house.
The Maui fire is the worst natural disaster to hit Hawaii since a tsunami killed 61 people in 1960.
It is also the deadliest wildfire in recent U.S. history, with the California Camp Fire second only to the deaths of 68 people.