A series of viral conspiracy videos on social media have made baseless claims that the Maui wildfires were intentionally started as part of a land grab. The cause or causes of the fires on Maui are still unknown, but no real evidence has emerged to suggest they were deliberately started as part of a land grab. After the wildfires in Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui last month, unsubstantiated rumors and conspiracy theories spread nearly as fast as the flames had. Five-year-old images are being shared in social media posts as proof that the government is using “direct energy weapons”, such as lasers, to intentionally start the deadly fires.
Far-right conspiracy theorists seized on the same theory in connection with Maui’s fire, falsely claiming the U.S. government had used a targeted “energy weapon” to start the fires. Others allege, without evidence, that the fires were started because elites wanted to force Native Hawaiians to sell their land, with some erroneously linking the fires to plans to create “a land grab”.
An offshoot of the “directed energy weapons” claims is that the Maui wildfires were started deliberately by wealthy landowners to steal land from indigenous populations on the island. As Maui grapples with one of the deadliest wildfires in recent U.S. history, it is also dealing with social media-fueled conspiracy theories. False claims about the deadly wildfires in Hawaii, including that shadowy forces orchestrated the disaster with a laser beam, have gained traction online.
📹 The Crazy Maui Fire Conspiracies and Lack of Government Response
JRE #2124 w/Dave Attell & Ian Fiddance YouTube: https://youtu.be/4XYv75Myreo JRE on Spotify: …
📹 The Maui Fires – REAL Reason They Happened
Our hearts go out to the victims of the Maui fires and the residents of Lahaina. It’s been heartbreaking to see how the Maui fires …
It is prime real estate. A lot of people’s homes were uninsured. Families got $700 a piece while Ukraine got millions the same week. People have started selling because it will take a while to clean and rebuild. A couple sold their place for $120,000. before the fire the place was valued over $800,000. Victims are being forced out hotels for tourism. There is not enough housing on the island. You sell pennies on the dollar.
I’m a Native Hawaiian born and raised on Maui and currently living here. Sad to see so many of my friends, family, and community members lose Everything they worked for. Conspiracy, yup, many believe. $700 yup a slap in the face. FEMA/Red Cross came and were surprised the local community was already set-up with shelters, food, water, clothin, etc. What’s to come no one knows as many have moved on to the mainland or different places. Being a Native Hawaiian feels like an endangered species as more Hawaiians live elsewhere but Hawaii, as the government keeps making it tougher for the Native people. My heart and praye continue for the people of Maui, especially Lahaina area. Maui No Ka Oi.
So glad you finally covered the Lahaina Fire. I followed it from the beginning with Eric West, the only one covering it at first. You have to get down to the real facts. You won’t believe the truth because this is unbelievable 🤨 It’s been 8 months and the people in charge are stalling because they are responsible for the deaths and loss of homes. Everyone is still not taken care of. It’s time for a change Hawaii. It’s up to you 🔥 🤙
The U.S. government does not own any of the technology they use in the military, they just putchase it from military contractors like Lockheed Martin. So the military contractors have all of that technology and can use it or sell it at will, especially after the contracts end. And if you dont think these fascist corporations wont do something shady with that tech then your crazy.
I live on Maui. I lost my job through the fires. I know people who burned in the fires I have friends committed suicide after the fires I cut trees and I was there the day after the fires looking at the fire and the trees very very suspicious houses would burn and all the trees and shrubs and flowers in the yard didn’t
Maui was almost a duplicate of the Paridise fire( including the direct energy theroy) I live there 10 years, & I saw all the articles, & it wasn’t normal. Cars melted in parking lots,with no trees or folage within 50 yards from it. Trees burned from the inside, a lot of weird things. My grand daughters house burned & her & her husband barely got out alive. You can’t make jokes & laugh unless you were trying to get out through the flames. Make all the excuses you want, but 85 people died & 60 thousand houses were burned down, & that doesn’t include businesses. Also they had to removed all the top soil because it was contained. That was 2017, my grand daughter & husband just moved back in a double wide, that’s 7 years. So it may be funny to you, no matter how it started, but people dide, * many lives were ruined. So unless you have been through a tradgy like that, don’t make a joke of it. C. C. Clingan
I hate how they are laughing about it and dismissing it offhand. They still haven’t released how many children died amongst so many other things that are being covered up. Lots of people figured out the truth so it all got swept under the rug so that 6 mo later 3 guys could bring it up and laugh it off as “crazy”.
Here are the footnotes I made when this happened. As I was studying the situation I made these notes so I could do further research at a later date. But, here you go. Maybe you can do some research too. Pretty much all of, If not all of this can be backed up. Government battles with haiwan elders for their sacred land Won in court that they can keep it from developers unless natural disaster ever happens there Fires happened Insurance companies won’t help because of some silly stuff Land or whatever organizations already trying to buy land from people with burnt homes Media says 80 deaths only one fireMan alone said he pulled out 80 people People who live there are saying the death toll is over 1000 bodies floating in the ocean Media not allowed to go in and take article No one allowed to send supplies Only allowed to send to fema and Red Cross for them to distribute They aren’t giving out any food or supplies People not allowed to leave homes in some places People issued “orange cards” Law enforcement blocked roads so people couldn’t leave Everyone saying dew Homeowner was fighting fire away from his house with hose They shut water off Fire trucks couldn’t refill water There is footage of all of this. People who live there talking about it. There is footage of cars and houses smoked. Cars melted. The trees look untouched. That doesn’t make sense. But it does! article of guy saying how he questioned cop who was blocking people from leaving. Guy also says he heard loud booms. Children were home.
It’s really terrible what happened, but it really does not take many coconspirators to neglect infrastructure and emergency resources to manipulate a natural disaster against residents for some type of benefit. When all this was happening people were posting the salary increases some officials were receiving…
Joe isn’t as ignorant to the fact as he puts off, just selective in wording while still bringing it to attention. all while risking minimal negative feedback by being neutral. He’s aware of the consequences, being the largest podcast reaching millions of viewers. However I think he should be more direct with information. Although it is playing with fire on the subject. (pun intended)
Here’s a quick breakdown of what I can remember while I was researching this back during this catastrophe: – The most insane all-island alarm system that was made for emergencies JUST LIKE THIS were purposely not sounded. – Water was refused to the firefighters and the Lahaina community during. – I can’t even remember the tragically high number of children who went missing. – Drivers were directed BACK INTO Lahaina while it was burning to the ground, only people who survived disobeyed police orders. – Something like $700 was offered to a tiny portion of residents, most of those residents didn’t even receive it. – Lasers were absolutely seen, comprehend that however you want – Ground zero was almost immediately surrounded by black fencing and unmarked non-police vehicles with personnel keeping people away from going into the town even to retrieve any possibility of their things after the fires were out. – Loooot of blue shit wasn’t burned.. dunno what to think about that. – Elites were in one of the next towns over deciding some shady shit that I can’t remember. – Maui governor I believe had been talking for years about making the island the first “smart island” whilst trying to shark people out of their homes. I didn’t hear of anybody receiving any kind of punishment for this, nor does anybody take any responsibility. I seriously can’t even remember everything I learned about this tragedy, most of it coming from websites like Hustle Bitch (Joe or anyone who knows him if you see this PLEASE get him on your show to discuss this).
This country is a joke. I have friends that own their home with no mortgage & hundreds of thousands of dollars(some with millions) in the bank that got a stimulus check. And they were even looking and waiting for that free money. And those people in Maui that lost everything got $700. Thats a fucking joke! And stop sending our tax $ to the Ukraine and Gaza. Help the U.S. citizens in need. As much as I love this country it makes me sick.
You are all out of your damn minds if you think its on someone else to speak up and call out anything that would have had the highest establishment powers behid it. If you have been paying attention. You know what they do to the ones who do. No ones coming. Its on you to save yourselves. They’ve shown you enough how much they care about taxpaying citizens and their families.
Weeks before the fires, don’t people remember them mentioning done beams of light going all the way up to space around Hawaii? Dunno if it was China or Russia but it was definitely mentioned here where I live in Canada. The purpose wasn’t mentioned but the almost laser like lights were mentioned and they were baffled….
I saw the articles of the Maui fires… And I heard the stories. I saw aluminum rims on vehicles melted and flowing as a liquid away from the burned out cars. I have professional experience in smelting and processing metals and I can tell you for a fact that no house or forest fire gets hot enough to melt aluminum -so somethings weird.
The direct energy weapon myth just comes from the fact that over the last 30 years people have been building high-end houses on Maui with blue terracotta tile roofs started in Kihei with Will Smith’s house behind times supermarket if I’m not mistaken As it would turn out brand new recently built multi-million dollar properties are spread out and baked clay terracotta roofs are hard to burn so they fared much better than the squish together antique houses that poor locals live in Meanwhile locals live in 100-year-old single wall construction houses built during the plantation era out of redwood My house is essentially kindling and has no fire code as it was built before those terms even existed
Check out the guy with the metal roof in Maui. It survived with just a slightly melted gutter. The metal roof wasn’t affected by embers and the house was also built with big old wooden beams instead of the usual lumber. He felt horrible it eas the only house standing in the neighborhood. Which makes me wonder. Why is roofing made with rubber and tar and extremely flammable? Its also dark colors which obsorbs the most heat from the sun making your house hotter.
I’ve seen everything I need to see to know that Hawaii was not in any way a fire the way we understand fire. Just like you can’t wrap a piece of hardwood in a newspaper and light it on fire, you can’t melt the aluminum in the vehicle using only the patchy spots of grass near the vehicle. A fire that would get to over 1800° would have to have massive amounts of fuel and oxygen going through it. Like a rocket stove as opposed to a traditional fire pit all the other suspicious shit only confirms the original suspicion regarding how these fires actually were lit. And now if you look around the world and see what’s going on in Chile, not to mention what already happened in California, you start noticing that the burnt out areas look nothing like white happens when you have a traditional fire model.
Guys, do yourselves the favour of looking up the Knysna Fire, I think it was 12 or so years ago. We have vamily there that lost their hose and literally everything but their two pets who had been at the vet that day. It was a tragedy and what’s worst is that people had been complaining about hot-spots underground for months but nobody listened, those very people were the first casualties. That fire was so indiscriminate, it would take down two or three houses then jump one or two before hitting the next. Even though the Fire Services were expecting fires due too drought in this forested area, they had setup in the opposite direction and by the time they realised what’s happening, it was too late and the town was blocked in. My family was eventually able too rebuild but more than 9 years had passed and the emergency funds started was “misappropriated” and very little really went into providing for those affected.
I worked for the Government for 30 years in Aviation and these lasers are a real thing. They were first mounted and tested on Boeing 747 Aircraft and have been in use for many years. The Blue Roof theory is because they use blue in testing to keep from targeting anything they don’t want destroyed. The Blue was a Safe Color used because it’s the color of the Blue tarps that are cheap to buy and easy to cover the tops of Bunkers and Ammo Supply Buildings or anything they didnt want destroyed temporarily while testing and then remove them after testing was done.
If you want to see a laser cannon mounted on the deck in front of the bridge of a nay destroyer, search Wiki – USS Pounce – Laser. That one is a kilowatt class laser counter measure for speed boats attacks. They are also mounted as laser pods underneath the fuselage of the F-15EX jets stationed at Kingsley AFB, which boast of being part of the USSC. There is a USSC base located on a mountain top over looking Lahaina on Maui. That one is an enemy satellite observatory. The laser battle stations of the USSC orbit the Earth. The shuttle was used to get them up and running – the reason Gorbachev conceded the arms race.
Ive worked on dews. The transverse co2 laser systems are what most systems are based on right now (the last I heard for relatively short range atmospheric lasers. Longer range, multi condition dews utilize multi spectral solutions) The co2 lasers beams are invisible and are absorbed by nearly all materials/surfaces including transparent and some reflective materials. Blue roof wont help lmao
The weapon has been depicted in media and games like Akira calling it the SOL or the hammer of dawn. It definitely exists and they used it in Canada. Theres a meterilogical article showing the moment it’s fired igniting a mass area of forest instantaneously. There’s no other credible explanation for such a thing occurring. The Chinese immediately painted roofs blue.
When you compare pics from 9/11 and Maui you can see eerie similarities, apparently a fireball from the building collapse apparently melted cars when it went down a streetand they were next to trees that are untouched but the crazy thing is that the streets between the collapsed bulding and the wrecked street were untouched.
I truly believe Americans have been trying to get rid of the natives of Hawaii for years. They wanna turn that into a paradise for rich people. A mini Dubai eventually. Like a designated area for all your rich endeavors and vacation needs. I believe this. Because the way Hawaii is but isn’t American is weird. The way it’s treated. It’s not like another state at all.
It wasn’t just blue roofs it was pretty much everything that was a shade of blue that didn’t burn. There’s tons of articles of the aftermath and you can see for yourself and an eerily similar fire happened recently in Chile and there’s articles of everything burnt to a crisp besides blue colored objects.
Ok, this 1st part is true. A F4 tornado hit at my grandma’s when i was a kid. Ill never forget. She had a few broken windows. She was directly in the path. The house across the street, nothing was left but the cement foundation. If that happened today, it would be a conspiracy. My grandma had blue curtains come to think of it. 💬
FEMA offered a blue roof tarp installation program for homes damaged by big storms. Anyone could sign up, but those receiving the tarp installations were selected … probably for a reason. Lahaina passed an ordinance banning blue exterior house paint. Oprah’s roof is blue. Blue materials survived unscathed whilst everything around them was reduced to charred rubble. My best guess is – 1 terawatt-blue-free electron-pulse laser cannons targeted on Lahaina from on high. Chinese military satellites were tracked over Lahaina at the same times as each of the 3 grass fire ignitions. The power in the lines was turned off prior to those ignitions. The 95 mph HAARP winds had never been witnessed in Lahaina prior to 8/8 and were occurring under blue skies and found nowhere else on Maui. Dora was HAARP created and parked 600 miles away as a cover story.
Too many coincidences for there not to be some conspiracies…metal buildings on Kupuohi street burned from the inside out, but there were no fires on the outsides of the buildings…No water in the hydrants when the fire happened, no sirens used to warn anyone, roads were blocked by the police who told us they were only following orders, same police chief that was in charge in Vegas during the mass shooting that was never resolved, national guard sent to keep people out of burn zones but no government relief sent for the people stranded and homeless until weeks later. Trees are still standing all over town. Mayor says it’s going to take 3 years before we can start rebuilding. Now my friends in real estate are whispering about the town being taken by imminent domain.
The total response was poor to the fire but as for the fire department they had a large majority of their engines on another fire over an hour away. They have very few firefighting resources on the island to handle multiple issues at once. Don’t be hard on those guys. Many of them lived or had family in Lahaina.
School was cancelled in Lahaina on the 8th. Most of those kids were probably at home, playing article games, perusal TV, sleeping, etc. They would’ve had no warning before the fires engulfed their houses without the sirens. Police also blocked the only road out of Lahaina after emergency texts advised residents to evacuate in their cars. They sat, waiting to be directed to safety, in long lines of cars. These burned out husks, drivers obediently waiting for directions as the fires overtook them, can be seen on article shot by residents along the streets. There are tens of thousands of military personnel stationed throughout Hawaii. In disasters past, aid & personnel were flown in as soon as the immediate danger passed. It’s after day 8 & there’s been no deployment or assistance. As a veteran & part of disaster teams, this is not normal. Those troops could build shelter, provide medical treatment, cook food, do recovery searches & clear debris. Why haven’t they been utilized??? Something’s not right here. In fact, things are very, very wrong.
As a Lahaina resident I can tell you the guy that was responsible for not activating the sirens should be in jail with no bail, and for ever. I talked to so many people that nearly died, and they all said if the sirens went off, in the middle of a fire, they would have had more time to save themselves!
Hey Two Bit, I think you’re forgetting something VERY VERY important. Hawaii had a similar fire happened a few years ago, that while nowhere near as deadly, it was STILL eye-opening. No alarms, no warning, water was turned off, everything was the same. The people demanded answers as to why there was no reaction from authorities in a townhall meeting, and the same Mayor that recently resigned, had no answers even then except to blame the locals for not obeying orders. Fast forward to now and same thing only worse happens and they improved NOTHING. This could have been prevented if lessons were learned. But nothing changed and now we have many people dead, possibly thousands of children missing or dead, and so much damage and lost homes. This is inexcusable. Period.
The most intriguing part to me is why the roads were blocked. There are articles of survivors trying to escape and being directed back to the fire direction!And literally looking like a death trap. It would have been more helpful if the authorities didn’t do anything, really. And so many days after the tragedy there are very few answers from the officials to all these questions. So, I can’t help but to think they are reheasing their narrative or waiting out for people to forget. Like a survivor said .. ” a mix of stupidity and evil”. I stand with the survivors account of what happened
I’ve seen two islanders share their stories that contradict what the MPD Chief said today…he said there was only one road closure outside of town. Maui people are showing articles of officers directing traffic and closing streets all over Lahaina, seemingly putting people into circles that got them stuck in the fire, especially on Front st. Is this a semantics game he’s playing? Or is he lying? Or did his officers lie to him? There is already proof that he didn’t tell the truth today at the press conference. Hate to say it, but it looks like MPD sent people to their graves with their incompetence and now are trying to cover it up. Mistakes happen, yeah? Is that what he was trying to say? Well the only way we learn is if we TELL THE TRUTH so we can move forward.
I watched a local man describe his experience perusal the police block the exit for all the cars. He asked him and the police said he was under orders to not allow the people to escape! There are too many of these locals who share similar stories- if the local govt wanted people safe why did so many of their actions do the opposite?
This is the first time I’ve heard that police were on bullhorns telling people to leave. My 2 friends in Lahaina said there were absolutely no warnings. People just saw/smelled smoke. articles are pouring out on social media from evacuees and all of us Hawaii friends and family are seeing all of this. Nothing about police except they directed cars back into the fire. I’m curious where this info about MPD bullhorn evacuations came from.
I was part of the rapid response team for the UK Grenfell fire incident and I can honestly the death toll was higher, but the actual death figures reported were kept low – all our paperwork and records were taken by the London Met Police, it was a turning point for me to not trust mainstream media and the state apparatus of police, coroners etc. There was a record keeper compiling all the dead individuals and he put the real figure at 432 against the government / msm’fact’ of 72 dead. I expect it will be the same for this incident…it is truly evil how much money is being given to Ukraine and not to US citizens and the disaster relief – I hope all Americans stand United and state clearly first take care of Americans who pay the tax…
Let’s not lose sight of finding the truth. People get so wrapped up in trying to get people to side with them that the truth becomes an inconvenience. I noticed some of that in this article. It’s also true that to find the truth you might have to pick a side depending on how the tragedy in this case is being handled. There are some incredibly hard-to-explain anomalies that I don’t think could happen any other way except through sinister deliberate means with destruction being the calculated outcome. I see that there was negligence on matenence with the excuse that the old system is going to be replaced with an updated grid therefore they let the poles, wires, transformers, etc…. fall into a state of disarray. There must be accountability for those responsible. The alarm system was turned off so people were under the illusion the fires were being managed. BUT THEN THERE WERE THE ROADBLOCKS IN BOTH DIRECTIONS ON THE ONLY ROAD TO SAFETY AND THEY WOULD NOT LET PEOPLE THROUGH. AS A RESULT, PEOPLE WERE LEFT TO BE BURNT ALIVE IN THEIR VEHICLES. OTHER PEOPLE VENTURED OUT INTO THE OCEAN BUT THAT WAS RIGHT IN LINE WITH THE TOXIC NOXIOUS SMOKE AND VOLATILE GASSES. STANDING IN THE OCEAN WITH T-SHIRTS USED AS MASKS SO THEY COULD BREATHE. Let’s say some of the fires were ignited by the electrical grid and high winds but we are talking about fires that stretched the entire length of the street in areas where there was no electricity. So many had no warning and no way out. Those who dodged barricades survived but those who didn’t were trapped and they died.
After the ice storm of 2007, AEP started burying residential lines in Tulsa, OK that weren’t already buried. Storm sirens are supposed to have battery backups. Someone really dropped the ball in Maui. It’s hard to say if it was incompetence or a set up for a land grab. It doesn’t look good. They knew the conditions were abnormally dry. They knew a rainless gale was was coming. We all knew of the fire disasters in California. So, why did they choose to do nothing? Someone’s head needs to roll for this. There needs to be an investigation.
I have watched hours and hours of articles and even though you may have an explanation of the explosion of fires, the officials ALL made numerous mistakes to not help people!!! To have a whole road corral people in cars to die a fiery death is unacceptable!!! These people should be investigated by an outsider! They need to go to jail!!!
Praying for all Hawaiians and especially those who lost loved ones. As well as those who lost everything. It’s heartbreaking. 💔 😭 May God grant them peace and hope to pull together and persevere through this terrible tragedy. As for the greedy rich and elite trying to prey on their misfortune, I pray God will deal with them accordingly. We love you Hawaii! ❤🙏🏼
Thanks for the presentation: I lived on Maui for 30 years up until Covid. I was involved in wind and watersports as well as aviation so paid an inordinate amount of attention to the weather conditions for all that time. There are a few clarifications I’d like to make. Lahaina exists in a wind shadow most of the time as trade winds do not go up and over the mountains they wrap around. When there is sufficient velocity they do, but the dynamics of that effect is a substantial cooling of the downflowing air, not a heating effect. The air hitting the windward face is lifted and warmed by orographic dynamics, releasing its moisture, then as it descends it releases its heat sometimes by 20° as it flows down into Lahaina in this case as very dry & cool air. Every Summer that I can remember going back to the 80s there was always a few times that the pressure gradient between the trade wind highs and the tropical lows became very strong and we would see 50+ MPH days… not frequently, but nearly every Summer. Lahaina has always been hot and dry as is its East Maui counterpart, Kihei. The crossing of an Atlantic low pressure system to the Pacific is hardly unheard of, and occasionally the opposite where the isthmus of Central America is narrow. The Sugar Cane was removed from Lahaina starting in the 80s and was all gone by 2000-2004. The canefields would have been a huge barrier to this fire as they were irrigated. The irrigation system is still there but not in use. Ironically they used to harvest it by burning!
2 of my best friends we’re ground 0 in Lahaina. They lost everything. They both heard of arsonist in the area. They also told me there we’re over 100+ people dead 3 days before news reported this. They said media was covering up the death count and they were spot on. They are strongly convinced this was NOT a natural occurrence. It would obviously make complete sense on a business standpoint. Some of the most desirable beach front in the US. With families that have been there for centuries that would never leave unless something like this happened.
A lot of truth to this article. My family and I were in North Lahaina. Our power went out at 4AM on the morning of August 8th. We went to the Lahaina Cannery Safeway that morning that had emergency lighting and the express checkout worked. The wind was high, leafs blew through the store, but we were able to get a few necessities. Outside the cannery the wind was blowing the power lines….flapping. Some poles were down, the power was out, no cell service. Even though the wind was 40 to 60 mph, seems like the power poles could not handle that. No emergency claxons ever went off in Lahaina or North Lahaina. No police or fire vehicles made any announcements. Even the local radio station 93.5 just talked about the spirit of Aloha instead of providing public service announcements. Driving around the gas stations were all closed, no power, people walked around with gas cans looking for gas. That night, the wind continued and the fires started and began to spread. I think the absolute worst thing during this disaster was zero Communications from the Maui government or the state of Hawaii. We did not know which roads were open, the South “old route,” the Lahaina bypass or the North route. I wonder if the local government communicated at all or much better, or used the radio stations, could people have been evacuated.??
Thanks for your coverage, please continue to dig and expect to dig up some DIRT. The information about the chief of police is extremely important and should be investigated further! Decades ago, I went to Hawaii, visited the islands of Oahu and Maui, and yes I survived the road to Hana, which for those who don’t know is a very rough road along the coast. Hawaii, has attracted more GREED than any other place I’ve been, and I was raised in New York City. FOLLOW THE MONEY!
As someone who has spent a lifetime living in an area of frequent fires, it is very apparent that zero thought and preparation from the authorities went into protecting the lives and property of Maui. It makes you wonder where the billions of dollars spent by the tourists ends up. I don’t think you could write a script for how badly this was handled. Hopefully lessons will be learned for the future.
I’ve been to Hawaii the island of Maui few times. What a awesome experience it was. 30 + mph winds happen all the time over there. So the wind knocking over the power lines as possible. The fact that the hurricane Mist Island by 500 miles. 🙌Kind of throws a stick in the spokes ❗🤔 The fact that people going to turn the water on to put the fire out is insane. The fact that there is no warning sirens. Those two things alone are beyond ridiculous! I see lawsuits getting filed against the state of Hawaii. Who knows how many people are actually dead 😢! People pay taxes to the city for things like water to put out fires 🙌! I hope these people get immediate help from the president of the United States. You can’t blame people for not believing the mainstream narrative. After being lied to for the last 3 years . There is a massive miss- trust for government now ! and there should be! You really can’t blame people for thinking outside the box nowadays. All the conspiracy theories were correct for the last 3 years 💯🙌..
Great breakdown. The only thing I respectfully somewhat disagree with is the suggestion that newer buildings would fare better in a fire. In actuality, older buildings typically withstand fire better. Newer homes are built with prefabricated trusses that are lightweight, glued particleboard instead of solid wood. The 2×4 studs are actually 1-1/2″ x 3-1/2″, etc. Not to mention the use of plastics, that when heated, melt into a petroleum-based liquid fuel. The biggest issue was the wind. With a constant supply of oxygen, the fires can reach 1500⁰F+. In 30+ years of fighting and investigating fires, I have never seen such complete destruction. The only things remaining seems to be steel (melting point ~2500⁰F) and some bricks/concrete. Even that seems to be damaged/spalled in some of the buildings. A Maui FF was recently interviewed, and she said of 18 FF’s who lived there, 17 lost their homes. They had no water to fight the fire. We need to contact our representatives and ask them to stop spending billions of $ on a proxy war and redirect the funds to support the recovery efforts in HI.
I saw a footage of lahaina and It’s hard to believe for a modern city/province to reach that scale, it’s like they let the fire destroy alot of houses there. I want to believe this is a natural calamity but according to the residents stories and just by looking at the topview position of the houses you can tell that it wasn’t a natural disaster. Sorry for my english not my native language.
Mahalo nui loa Two Bit Da Vinci. Your thorough and researched review is very much appreciated. As a local resident of Maui for 62 years I am deeply saddened that precautions that could have been taken were not. Yes, as a Hawaiian we worry about our lands being taken away again and it’s only natural to feel that way seeing and experiencing much of the fee simple homes being sold for over a million dollars and the starting point is near that amount. Our children cannot afford to buy a home unless their careers and salaries are over the $100k mark and as you know a very large percentage of Hawaii residents unfortunately depend on the service industry and no one makes near that kind of money unless you own the hotels, restaurants and other businesses or if one chooses to move away to pursue professions in other states. Please continue to bring us more of your research and knowledge and Thank-you for spreading the word of our dire need around the world.
Thank you for your research. I don’t know what happened. But I do know evil is as evil does. Those who would try to exploit these precious people would do it without humanity. And they have been crawling out of the slime to take advantage like all poisonssnakes do. May the good guys win, and may those wonderful souls feel our love and support and know we are with them. 😢
17 years I lived in Hawaii, 13.5 of them on Maui. There is a awful lot of corruption in their governmental systems. I find it interesting (in a sad way) that many of the officials who could authorize the sirens and other measures were off island at the time… Also, Pastor Morocco of King’s Cathedral is a good & honest man and is an excellent person to send funds too.
Here are 13 reasons why I think what happened in Maui was intentional and NOTHING adds up: 1. There was no power. 2. The water was shut off. 3. The kids were home because school was out for some reason. 4. Supposedly the firefighters “contained” the fire. 5. The largest alarm system in the world, yet no one decided to set it off. 6. Realtors are calling to residents to sell their homes. (insane) 7. Hearing word that there are blockades, people can’t leave. 8. Hearing & seeing that there is no government aid. 9. Reporter asks biden about the fires, he says “no comment” and smiles. 10. Biden is only sending a 1 time 700 dollars per house hold, when he has sent BILLIONS to ukraine. 11. The fires that caused this is already being pushed towards “climate change.” 12. A piece of shit put a book up on amazon called “Fire and Fury, the Story of the 2023 Maui Fire and its Implications for Climate Change.” which was published JUST 2 days after the fires broke out. 13. In the beginning, the main stream media didn’t even report it, or barely did once word got out.
As a parent, it breaks my heart to think about someone losing a child. Losing an entire family is unthinkable. Anyone that counts on the federal government being there to help in the first 2 weeks (add 2 weeks for an island thousands of miles away from the main land) to help with their track record has their head in the sand. The incompetence in the local and state government is overwhelming.
⭐️The Maui fires 🔥 started on 8.8 ⭐️Hawaii area code is 808 and it was assigned on 8.8.1957 ⭐️Hawaii is one of the 8 big islands ⭐️The letter “H” is the 8th letter in the alphabet ⭐️Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on the 8th month ⭐️Kanye West recorded his 808 Heartbreak album in Hawaii ⭐️Marcus Mariota born in Hawaii has worn the #8 his whole career ⭐️The number 8 is symbolic to the Hawaiian islands ⭐️Wake up everyone. This wasn’t an accident. They premeditated murdered these people!
I enjoy your articles. I am an attorney and a retired fire investigator. When I retired in 1996 I held a Master Firefighter certification, Master Fire Investigator Certification and Master Peace Officer certification in Texas. I recently spent 9 days in Maui in May of this year and I would like to offer my observations. My wife and I and our friends spent several days in Lahaina and along Front Street and had a very memorable trip. I remember thinking when I saw the hundreds of acres of tall grass growing along the highway that it appeared to be a huge fire hazard. Even if the hazard was understood, I doubt that Maui could have adequately prepared for the danger given the fact that there are only 10 fire stations on Maui and only one road that circles the island. The most striking thing about this incident was the complete lack of any firefighting equipment in any of the articles. Given the fact that a fire grows in intensity at an exponential rate, time is of the essence in getting water on the seat of the fire. 60 seconds is an eternity in fighting a fire. It is critical to having a rapid response if tragedy is to be avoided. I know you mentioned trouble with water supply however, every pumper is capable of drafting water from any water source and many of the residences in the area had swimming pools. One pumper could have supplied enough water to keep many structures safe. Unfortunately, the 60+ mph wind that was blowing probably made this a fire that was simply impossible to contain given the small amount of firefighting equipment that was available.
Good information; it matches what I’ve said from the beginning. It could have been prevented. I believe a main factor is that the pineapple and sugar cane industries managed most of the land in west Maui for decades; when they (mostly) left due to high costs, the government was left to manage it. Those industries had their own fire experts, crews, water trucks, dozers, and retention ponds for fire and irrigation. They managed their crops and most of the brush/grass areas. Keep in mind that sugar cane is burned before harvest, so they had to know how to control and prevent fire from spreading to brush/grass. Politics and money took over rather than proper land management.
If you would like to hear an eyewitness account by a guy named Fish, watch Hawaii Real Estate where he is interviewed. He said that police officers blocked both exits in and out of Lahaina. He was on foot and said there was one police officer on one exit with hundreds of cars lined up, but this officer would not let any of the cars through. Fish could not understand why this cop was doing this. As he was walking he kept looking back and wondering why the cop would not let anyone through. It is a very compelling first hand account.
Very true about land grabs! My mom died in a nursing home, but I had all her mail sent to my house. Not even days after her will was submitted to probate court, i was get text messages and tons of letters of house offers for her house…..which wasnt her house. It is my house, never her house. 6 months and i STILL get random men saying sell me your house now….really forceful. I feel bad for old people that get these.
Rick I am a Local from Hawaii now living in Palm Desert. I have to tell you that you’ve done an excellent job of breaking down and explaining things, job well done. What happened in Lahaina is absolutely heartbreaking 😭 I was crushed when I heard the news . We as locals already know that the greed of the wealthy and government have plans to take what does not belong to them. We have so much corruption going on back home that it’s a fricken sin ! Please keep up the good work, I enjoy perusal all your articles ! 🍺🤙🏽
One thing to note with regards to burying power lines: I just purchsed land in Hawaii several months ago and in doing preparation for building my home I was informed that digging almost anywhere in Hawaii is incredibly difficult. Basically, at least where my property is on the Big Island, there is roughly 6-8 inches of dirt on the surface, and from that point onward is solid lava rock. This is incredibly strong stone which is very difficult to excavate, which translates to very expensive. Therefore virtually anything that would require digging anything substantial is almost guaranteed to be rejected for a less expensive alternative. The Big Island is obviously a different island than Maui, however they were both formed the same way so I doubt there are big differences to the geography there. Obviously outdated or poorly maintained infrastructure should be addressed, I just wanted to point out that anything requiring digging anything substantial is basically not realistic/feasible anywhere in Hawai’i.
Thanks for this report. I was in Santa Rosa Ca for the fires and it was not natural. A natural fire would have burned all of the surroundings and yet the homes were burnt past their foundations BUT the stand of Eucalyptus trees right behind the one strip of homes. There were dozens of these trees. The fireman said that most house fires burn less than the temps of these because they melted the chrome into liquid which is a much higher heat. There were dozens of home security cameras showing lazier beams of light. One home was like it was cut in half. This is DEW attacks. Then when they tried to rebuild they were not getting building permits due to foundation damage. Hello put in a new foundation. We are really in for it this is all planned and they want any of us left to live in box apts and pay them high premiums for them. Has anyone put a report together of the massive amounts of fires in the last few years. Also lots of flood. Anyone checking out what HAARP is doing? God help us and protect us.
This is the same identical thing that happened in the fires of Santa Rosa in California. This is also the same reaction. What happen after the twin towers fell. If anybody recalls people stepping forward is to tell the truth it was Judy Woods. Maybe she could tell you what happened to these cars and structures that are just totally wiped out. I had saved several clips from the Santa Rosa fires, and it was rather strange that my phone had been erased from every article that I had ever downloaded.
Did I read that 6 inches down is lava rock? Is this why so many utility poles went over? Because they couldn’t drill through the lava to get the poles deeper in the ground? I had assumed that the poles were all old and rotted. I would expect that 80 years after poles are put up that if abandoned are all going to fall down due to rot from the inside out.
I was at the Lahaina Shores Beach Resort on Front Street on the 7th and 8th of August for my Honeymoon. Just to share my story of what happened: The winds were insane, probably 30-40 mhps, the winds were so strong that it was picking up and throwing around the resorts beach/lawn chairs and you can hear the whistling of the wind through gaps of the room doors. At around 0500, the was a power outage due to knocked down power lines. There was also a fire near front street at around 0400-0600, but was considered contained at around 0800. When we left to walk the streets to get food, winds were still roaring, it was like a dust storm. You can see the wind swirling especially when it went towards the water, it looked almost like a mini tornado. When looking at the streets on the 8th of August at 1000 the town was already a wreck, trees were uprooted, light pools knocked down, large tree branches all over the roads, house fences knocked over, over all it looked like a post apocalyptic scene. Leading up to 1630 we were without power and cell service, we occasionally got signal and before 1700 we got alerts about fires. We could see the fire moving towards the resort from the laundry room of the 5th floor, it didn’t seem concerning until we noticed the fire was at first over half a mile away but umbers were jumping from tree to tree and reached 300 feet away from the resort in less than 8 minutes. During this time we were alerted to evacuate the resort and luckily we made it out as the fire was no more than 50 feet away from us as we were attempting to drive out.
To fully understand the situation requires an understanding of the geography and geology of Hawai’i. The roads in Hawai’i are near the coast because the center of each island is mountainous. (They are all volcanoes, whether active or extinct.). To get to the other side of the island involves going around the edge, not through the middle. It’s not easy to bury power lines there because most of the land is hardened lava. It requires drilling through solid rock, not soil as is often the case on the mainland.
Why did police block the roads, preventing people from leaving? I saw 3 different interviews with individuals who all said that the roads to exit the area, were blocked. One person said they had to go through a roadblock to get out. That’s not “incompetence” that’s deliberate. And land grab, is a very strong motive, when the land that was destroyed has a property value of $ 3.5 Billion.
Amazing and detailed recap. Love how you broke everything down and added some history. One thing you may want to possibly amend on your last few minutes of this article is the narrative that “Maui residents don’t want visitors”. That is not entirely true for the majority of Maui. Yes, Lahaina and surrounding areas need to heal and recover without visitors. The rest of the island and Hawaii needs support too, mostly from visitors, for restaurants, businesses and hotels. Other large influencers that have been spreading a similar “Maui is closed” narrative have been put on blast recently. You have an amazing reach, and I think a better request would be for people that want to visit Maui, to please call ahead of where they plan to stay and visit and ask if they are welcome. All of Maui needs the support of the world.
It’s simple: caused by energy weapons, just like in Australia couple years back. Reason? Cheap property. This area of the Island hasn’t had the big investment treatment… because people had their own community. Local aid is being blocked, while big firms are trying to buy the land for pennies on the dollar.
As a FL resident who has lived through Cat 3 and 4 hurricanes, and also had close calls with brush fires, I have been absolutely petrified at the circumstances and outcomes of this catastrophic event in Maui 😕 I truly hope that that homeowners insurance industry does not retaliate against the residents of that beautiful state the way that they have against Florida and California by making our homes essentially uninsurable due to the fact that we have natural disasters.
Having been in the middle of this situation, I greatly appreciate your insightful article. Having said that I am upset that there was absolutely NO warning of the early morning fire. We were renting a condo on Baby Beach in Lahaina and woke up on Tuesday morning to having no power. When the property manager was contacted all he said that the whole west side of the island was without power due to downed power lines caused by the winds. No mention of fire was made. My children checked their social media….nothing. There were no warnings from the authorities. Local and surrounding island radio stations were playing Hawaiian music! They could have used their source to at least the people. We left with just the clothes on our backs like so many others. Had we stayed just 15 more minutes, my family would have been caught in the inferno. I understand that the fire was caused by circumstances beyond our control, but the way it was handled was all WRONG!
I’m a retired radio man that worked in Hawaii on Oahu during the 70s and my heart is still there. I would like to commend you on the way you present your program. Very professional very well done very clear very precise no fluff no voice acting you’re doing a great job I appreciate you. Thank you for the information.
Lahaina is/was one of the newest/upgraded towns on maui, as in most buildings and homes along at least half of lahaina likely more than half was or should have been the most up to date and well constructed area on the island. To see these concrete buildings be burnt to the ground is just beyond suspicious in many ways. It definitely has me questioning a lot of what the media is claiming… having lived in lahaina personally for years and both grew up on as well as currently still live on Oahu, I can say for certain the situations unfolding throughout this tragedy are making the fires cause and everything since extremely questionable…
The problem with saying ‘partly climate change’ is that NO ONE has any idea what the baseline temp would be if there was no climate change, and even worse, no idea how much of that would be human caused. In addition we know that the climate is continually changing in a continually ice age cycle every 25-50,000 years and has done it dozens or hundreds of times. So there is literally no way to know if climate change had the slightest impact on the fires, or if it was simply weather, which is also continually variable. It’s irresponsible for anyone – most of all any scientist – to blame climate change at all. It’s ignorance and assumption without any factual basis.
Having lived in brushfire country all my life, I can tell you the West fire was strange. High winds spread sparks downwind starting spot fires which then expand, but the fastest growth is into the wind and uphill. The West fire did neither of these things. I know it seems counterintuitive to think fires burn faster into the wind, but I have seen an extreme example. In the mid 70’s, I was living just north of Reno, Nevada when a fire started near the Oregon / California / Nevada border junction. It burned for days. By the time it neared us it had created its own microclimate. It was so hot it created a massive column of rising air, which created a wind blowing into the center. At one point it was burning into an 80 mile an hour wind and was advancing at 30 miles an hour. Add in the fact that fire burns faster uphill. Our first sight of the fire was when it crested a mountain about 50 miles away. We couldn’t see the mountain because of the mountains nearer to us. What we saw was flames and sparks shooting off the top of the mountain like a volcano. We didn’t wait for evacuation orders, we just left. The firestorm died down because the burnt center of the fire got too big, and they managed to stop it a few miles from our home. (Thank you to the people who fought that brush fire).
Power company failures are being thought to be the initiating of the fire, but there are a few strange things I have questions about. Normal forest/ brush/home fires burn at several hundred degrees as best I know. From the article I have seen, hundreds of cars had both the glass, and alloy wheels and engine blocks melted to dust and puddles. These have melting points of 2000-2500 degrees F. Isn’t it odd that the fires seemed to jump long distances from hot/burn points to hot/burn points? Isn’t what looked like pinpoint accuracy strange? Based on a military website report the US military has two bases that specialize in and have DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPONS, Vegas, and guess where else? MAUI!!!!!!! DEW generate lasers that are pinpoint accurate and operate at temperatures of 2500-3500 degrees. Is it possible the reason very few bodies are being located is because they were essentially cremated at temperatures of 1400-1800 degrees? DEW would do exactly that and this would explain many of the questions the citizens have. Between the major mistakes/coincidences that occurred coupled with this piece of information would result in everything that is being discovered daily in Maui. Pluss the secretive handling and behavior of the so-called emergency recovery teams? Share these questions so the good, God-Fearing people can help make those pure evil individuals are held accountable for their unbelievable acts that killed what I am sure will end up being 4000 or more.
Thank you for explaining this in much more pragmatic way. My family and I live in Lahaina. We are near ground zero on Front St. Our community is the last one standing but 12% In our community were not so lucky. We are the lucky ones that our house is still standing. 🥺 I’m glad you told the story of the history of our land. It is too late now to go back and redo all but we can move forward and learn from our mistakes. The hardest part is the recovery for all of us living. One thing thou growing up here we always knew that the siren is for Tsunami and the evacuation for that is to go Mauka. If the siren had gone off people will think to go Mauka which higher up where the fire is coming from. Would that send people to their death? It took me awhile to comprehend that as people talking about siren should go off but we were always told as kids siren was for Tsunami. There has got to be an accountability for the energy company, for so long residence begged to modernized our power lines by burying them under ground their complaint was the cost now the cost is far greater. How do you replicate Lahaina? You just can’t. There is so much conspiracies and distain towards our officials on the ground. Our fireman, police officers and government officials also lost homes and their love ones but people are acting with emotions without thinking that they too have families and can only take so much. I just wish people would be more supportive towards the people on the ground that is working tirelessly to build back our community and trying find missing love ones but instead some are capitalizing by sneaking into the burnt site taking articles of the dead remains posting on YouTube just to make a few clicks also contaminating the site for the cadaver dogs to find our love ones.
The Guinea grass isn’t grown in Lahaina; more like in the Big Island. The reason you don’t see too many native trees anymore is because the monarchy sold the wood from the forests in the 1800’s. You’ll find a lot keawe trees which gets really dry especially in the leeward side of the islands which is where Lahaina is. And oh BTW Kula which suffered extensive burning is on the leeward side of Haleakala.
A guy whos house DID NOT burn, went to his house to see the damage. His GARAGE DOOR OPENER, mounted right outside his garage was ZAPPED And cover was melted and fell to the ground. No fire marks, no scorching ANYWHERE. AND… people open their safes and money and paperwork inside was ASHES..BURNED TO ASHES
Just listening to one of the residents who live in Lahiana said that most of the old buildings were Concrete and burned down leaving nothing but a new housing build that was in progress and made from wood did not burn. I would be inclined to believe the individuals who live there. Also, the residents have reported that the police would not let them out of the fire zone but did let the tourists out. What was going on?
There are a lot of conspiracy theories surrounding it, but people are understandably distrustful of our government. If buying 860 acres of land in Maui for 6.6 million dollars isn’t a land grab, I don’t know what is (Oprah). The heads of PG&E should be in jail plain and simple. Why did the state let them off? It just incentivizes them to keep doing nothing… leading to more fires… and rinse and repeat, that is literally the story of PG&E in California right now. Not to mention how terrible and expensive the service is. Gavin Newsom should be in prison too.
There’s is no possible way this was wildfire. Go watch Eric West article on a car that burned. The car was burned from the inside out which a wildfire cannot do. It’s proven that if you would put a car over a bonfire the motor and inside the hood would not burn because there’s not enough oxygen under the hood. But the motor was completely torched. The glass was melted meaning the fire had to have been 1,500-2,00 degrees. Wildfires don’t get that hot. The grass around the car was fine. The car was on gravel which is almost impossible for a fire to do that. And if this were a wildfire then how are trees not burned to the ground. The Banyan tree was in Lahaina and is burned but not burned to the ground which a wildfire would do. And boats OUT AT SEA were torched and the flames could not get out that far especially in water. The police and government are clearly involved because they didn’t send the sirens and they were blocking the only exit out of Lahaina. All the evidence is leading to a direct energy weapon which are invisible beams so you can’t see them. Call me a conspiracy theorist but it’s the truth and everyone knows it.
This is excellent research and a great historical tutorial article. I lived on Oahu for 35 years and traveled to Maui frequently. All three residents I lived in were older single wall, tongue and groove, 1 inch wooden construction homes and were well ventilated to disparate heat in the summer. In other words, a tinder box but very practical. This my first time on Two Bit and new subscriber. Prayers for those who lost everything and to the families who lost loved ones. Mahalo.
You didn’t talk about the boats on anchor in the bay that caught fire. I have sailed into Lahaina. There is a shallow lee (downwind) bank extending for about a mile off the shore where, when I was there, were about 100 boats anchored and because of the congestion the anchorages extend way offshore but all of these distant boats caught fire. Then, have you studied car shells in residential fires? Have you ever seen cars burned as if in an inferno in such fires? I haven’t and many of the Lahaina buildings were brick, which doesn’t burn unless they reach a temperature far exceeding residential fires. So stop talking garbage and talk real facts!!!
Online news source: Our mutual friend checked on the source last week and the source said the Maui government is covering up the deaths. The source had just returned from a big meeting on Oahu convened to coordinate the response to the disaster. The source said that there are 2000 people missing and that FEMA estimates at least 1-2000 dead on Maui, especially Lahaina. It was essentially burned to the ground and the residents were told to shelter in place. Many are probably dead.
Thanks for the article. I find myself wondering why Josh Green and the guy who resigned recently were off the island when this tragedy happened. Is it coincidence or conspiracy. The leader who failed to activate the siren system was on Oahu at a conference for emergency management services. Just weird. Then these stories of closing the road and not letting people evacuate. Was this gross incompetence or a conspiracy?
Based on your intro, the investors, etc burned it down. In a neighborhood that I drive pass in my city, the city was trying to pay landmark owners to move out, to build new things. The people didn’t except the money. Next, it was a uprise in robberies near by and guess who eventually moved? Those small businesses and the new people built apartments and houses right there, like they wanted to. This sounds familiar.
One thing to note, when air is forced upwards by a mountain, it cools and (if moisture is present) it rains. Then, when it flows down the other side it warms up again and since it no longer has moisture, it dries anything in it’s path. That is why the prevailing wind side of the Maui mountains are lush and the leeward side almost deserts. What happened in this fire is the high winds caused by the pressure difference with the hurricane lift air up the mountain, then when it came back down the other side it was fast, dry and hot, perfect for driving fires. All it would have taken would have been some sort of spark and the dry areas on the leeward side would have gone up like a tinderbox. This effect is a regular occurrence in Canada east of the Rockies, where the resultant winds are called Chinook winds.