at least 99 people lost their lives. using first—hand accounts corroborated by video on the ground, we've built up a picture of what happened and how a desperate situation was made worse still by mistakes from authorities. and we've obtained new recordings that indicate a breakdown in communication around where the fallen power lines were live or turned off that led to roadblocks that may have been unnecessary. it's the morning of august 8th, and winds in lahaina are already high. and i started seeing all the cyclones and stuff like that out over the water and i've never seen that in person. so i thought it was kind of cool, and i started videoing to show her, and the windsjust... itjust started getting worse and worse and worse. by this point i started noticing debris down in the roads. parts of roofs had started blowing off, all kinds of stuff. you could hear it hitting the side of your car. clunk ok, that one hit the top of the car. - every exitjonathan tries is blocked. some energy lines have fallen down, other roads impassable due to fallen debris. then at around 2pm, he sees smoke. two cop cars just blew past us. and i'm guessing it has something to do with all of this new smoke i'm seeing. it was kind of wispy and white at first. then as we sat there in traffic longer and longer and longer, it became pretty apparent that the fire was starting to rage out of control. it's getting pretty close. roofs are flying off, trees are definitely breaking. the wind isjust not dissipating. it's getting stronger. and within minutes it turned into this big black, ugly smoke. and then itjust started to move horizontally, not vertically. so i'm out there with a garden hose, and that's ridiculous now that i say it out loud, but i'm trying to water the roofline and the trees that were around my partner's property. i start to feel heat. i realise the fire is like one house over. i'm asthmatic. i don't know how i was breathing. i'm covered in soot and i tell myself, "i gotta go." and then i saw my neighbours. they're waving me and yelling at me and they were asking for help. there's one in the back. coughing oh, my god. it crossed. maui has an emergency siren system designed for tsunamis, hurricanes and wildfires, but it was never activated. a separate controversy remains around that decision. the town's power had been turned off that morning, so many residents had no idea what was going on. i think it was my mum who smelled smoke first. we could see the smoke starting to come over and kind of cover our neighbourhood. we left at about 3.40, 3.16. this fire is huge. i know. like... it's just jumping everywhere. so we look to the left and that person's house started to go up just like in a blink of an eye. goddamn it. it was unbelievable how fast it was. at that point, we had a fire on the left side of our car by the houses, and the right side of our car. that's gil's house, right on the freaking corner. the smoke is so black, it looks like night. you had a car in front of you and now you don't even see it. are we backing up? are you serious? and there's no police or first responders or anybody directing you. both u'i and noah get to lahainaluna, a long road that dissects the town of lahaina. from there, they're hoping to take one of two roads out, but the traffic is bumper—to—bumper. the first option is to go up the hill, away from the sea to the bypass, a wide freeway with little around it that can burn. up or down? ithink up. she sighs i think up. that bypass, which is kind of like the main vein of getting in and out of lahaina, it's the fastest way, that road was closed. siren go ahead, fire truck. meanwhile, 911 calls are coming in, pleading with the police to open the bypass. with the bypass closed, they both decide to go down lahainaluna, towards the sea, to this intersection. here, they're hoping to take the highway, which will take them out of town in either direction. but when they get there, to their horror, they find the road has been closed by police. i was going to go right. and then we couldn't, it was blocked off. they made you go right down into lahaina town to front street, which was already a parking lot. did you see them blocking it off? yeah, there was an officer there going, you know, and just funnelling everybody down lahainaluna road into la haina town. now we're out of it. we can see now. i can't believe that. holy... it was like black. that was crazy. noah and his family think they've managed to get out, but they too can't get on to the highway. 0h, sh... the road's closed. new footage from the police obtained by the bbc through a freedom of information request shows how frustrated two officers were who were lahainaluna with the roadblocks. i don't know what we're doing. slow, slow, there's a car right here. . we gotta tell central. central 3. we gotta get all these cars down lahainaluna road. i the fire is right. next to the cars. why are the cars not moving? we've stopped traffic on both sides of the highway. what is he doing down there? i don't know. we have guys in both lanes going down. it's burning next to the cars up there. we've got to go help i these frickin' guys down there because they don't know what the - they're doing. in my mind the whole time, i'm still kind of holding on to hope that this thing is being contained. ijust kept thinking, like, "i'm sure they're fighting it right now. " although we hadn't been hearing sirens. u'i, noah and jonathan are all directed towards front street, where lahaina meets the sea. but as they sit in traffic, panic begins to set in as the smoke catches up with noah and his family. ijust don't want to be in lahaina. no, we don't either. we're trying to go. just to put it in perspective, it looked like it was night—time. if you got out, you couldn't see three feet in front of you. everything was shrouded in smoke. and i rememberthere was a ray of sunshine that came through and you could see how far to the bypass cars were blocked up. you could see how many people were getting funnelled down to front street. oh, my god. u'i was in one of those cars. when she reaches front street, she has a decision to make — left or right. so i went left because that was the only lane that was actually moving. but in the back, in my rear view, i can see headlights disappear into the black smoke. and i'm thinking to myself, "my god. we're not moving fast enough. "we've got to get out of here." there's people back there, you know? how many cars behind you? hundreds. it just went on until it disappeared. i don't think i've ever been this concerned about my own personal safe being. i'm kind of in a little disbelief because it feels like it's escalating so fast and still there's no information down here of what's happening up there. so i'm praying, honestly, and just trying to keep in communication with him and trying to strategically look for some safety for him. here's the plan. as the smoke closes in, jonathan is forced to abandon his car and move to the water. i'm going. he's pushed back by the smoke on to the sea wall. wind howls in a way, i feel like i was saying | a goodbye just in case. with no way out. stuck in a trafficjam, noah and his family abandon their carand climb into the sea. i was really terrified in that moment. you're going to be ok, milo. both sides to the left and the right are on fire. white smoke's starting to come, which means the fire is starting to... scary. by this point, the whole town is seemingly on fire. after checking his child is ok, another lahaina resident, kekua, decides to drive into town to help people. he sees a woman by the side of the road. and she was pretty badly burnt. her legs were burnt, her heels were burnt. the back side of her body was burnt. and what does front street look like at this point? 0h, crazy. you know, i could hear people kind of yelling, "help! help!" i was terrified. you know, i'm not going to lie. it was scary. yeah, ijust watched it. it sounded like gunshots in the distance. we knew it wasn't, but that's what it sounded like. i think what was worrying for us too is one of the sounds we didn't hear was sirens. that was one of our thoughts is, "we'lljust stay in the water till the fire trucks come and put this out. and we waited and waited and it never...it never happened. noah and his family stayed in the water for six hours until it was safe. by this time, the smoke is starting to clear a little and kekoa is beginning to see the devastation around him. there was dead people in their cars, there's dead people on the ground. people look like pompei. that's what they look like. like, they look like if you if you see them or the wind blows on them, they're gone. as the morning light comes, it's clear that most of front street, most of the city has burned. our neighbourhood was hit really hard. every other house, somebody lost. some people go, "you're a hero for saving them." "they would have been dead." and i'm like, "i'm nota hero, do you know how many people i passed, evidently, that i didn't know about that i didn't check on?" i had a neighbour. they're not there any more. i had an auntie. she's not there any more. so many things that should have happened that didn't happen. travis moved to hawaii because he loves the outdoors. his passion is surfing. but the day of the fire, it was too windy. so instead, he headed to the supermarket for supplies. just kind of sat there and watched, you know, some trees have blown down, big trees in the parking lot in the time that i was there. he got his camera out and began to film. so when the power lines came down on the highway north, which is an evacuation route out of lahaina to the north, the police came and they blocked the highway at chiave street. they had their cars as barricades, you know. the main road out of lahaina to the north is the highway. you can see it here. travis is right next to it by the supermarket in this car park. but he films the highway closed for hours, blocked at this intersection by police at the height of the evacuation. there was two lanes of open traffic southbound, you know, that could have been used for people to go north and they wouldn't have had to trap people on the front street. where are you guys going? where are you going? they stopped us a while ago. police bodycam footage shows how chaotic the situation was, how police tried to open up roads to get people out. but they also had another consideration — trying to protect people from being electrocuted. the footage also shows that some roads were blocked. if there was a downed power line that was live, we want to make sure that you didn't go over it down live our line. the local electricity provider, hawaiian electric, says it switched the power off at 6:40 am and it was off all day. but did the message get to the police? hawaiian electric said to the bbc that it told the police on multiple occasions during the day, starting in the morning and extending into the late afternoon, that the company's lines in lahaina were not energised. hawaiian electric also provided us with a recording of one of these calls. however, the company has not sent over any of the other recordings or transcripts of conversations with the police that day. the mayor of maui, richard bissen, was in the emergency operations centre. we were telling everyone throughout the day to treat all power lines as if they were energised. we were putting that message out because that's the standard message that comes from everyone. but hawaiian electric said that they told the police on numerous occasions that they weren't energised. that's what hawaiian electric told us. you'll have to ask the police. the police view what happened that day very differently to hawaiian electric. in a statement to the bbc he police said that hawaiian electric did not proactively communicate to maui's police department that all of its downed power lines in lahaina were not energised. the picture is murky, but what's crystal clear is that the police were treating fallen power lines as live and closing crucial roads out. but even though there was high level confusion that day, the mayor says that these traffic decisions were made by local police. were police getting given orders that might be old or out of step with what was actually happening on the ground? i don't know what orders the police are getting. for example, to close roads or to divert traffic onto front streets. we weren't on the ground that those decisions are being made by those on the ground. that's what you do. the situational awareness doesn't come from the people who are away from the scene. travis believes there was a lack of common sense exercised by the police. it was handled very rigidly on the ground. and there wasn't any... there wasn't enough. i don't want to say there was nojudgment used, but from this situation at front street and some of the roads, there was a lack of, like, situational awareness and willing to do what you can see is the best thing to do versus what your orders were from people that day. the police were trying to stop people from getting electrocuted. but by doing so, many witnesses say they were also hindering people's escape routes. this, though, is something the police deny. we did not close or forbid people from getting out of lahaina. the police say that they didn't stop anyone from leaving. inaudible bull... i seen it with my own eyes. i knew, like, once i saw the roadblock this is insane. like, those people are on the road not because of a traffic jam, but because of one that's created by, you know, our authorities. how do you feel about that? i feel fed up, i feel really angry. i feel like there's culpable negligence and it's criminal what happened. like, people lost their lives that wouldn't have lost their lives. the lack of an emergency warning, slow evacuation orders and chaotic road closures all point to a lack of preparedness, something the mayor accepts. what do you think are the lessons that can be learned or taken from this tragedy? you know, better preparation. right? i mean, that's what everybody is pointing to. better response, better... just a better awareness of, er, the dangers we face. and who should take responsibility for that? we all should take responsibility. all of us, for sure. back to the front. pinch it with your left hand. u'i's house burnt down. she now lives in a hotel. teaching hawaiian crafts to local children keeps her mind away from what happened and the uncertainty of her future. you're going to tuck it in. so watch, tuck. i think everybody had a best intention. i don't think people purposely blocked this road so that people could burn in their cars. i definitely don't think that. i just think that somebody on the other side of the fence or on the other side of the wall was trying to do what they thought would be the best thing or what they were told was the best thing at the time, you know, and unfortunately, it may have been a mistake and a very costly one. noah's house also burnt to the ground. he's not sure what he's going to do next. he still has questions about what happened. i'm not totally sure if there's even a confirmed report of what happened and why they did close the road. i think that's something a lot of people want to know, including myself, i would love to know. yeah, it was just a lot of, i think, maybe poor communication. for kekoa he didn't realise it that as he was ferrying people out he'd passed by his great uncle, joseph lara, who was in one of the cars just off front street. and he's a little old man, my grandmother's brother, he loved his dog, haupia. the dog went everywhere with him. and he wasjust, you know, he was a crazy little old man, you know. he was a good guy. he got trapped in a traffic jam, tried to go around it, got stuck in the fire, died. any more proof you need? yeah. so what should have happened is the roads should have been open, freely evacuate in a calm, safe manner. go, go, go. jonathan managed to find a way out and eventually connected back with his wife. oh, my goodness. hi. thank you for getting me. i have had people say that, "well, why didn't "you go this way?" "why didn't you do that?" and we did. and there just was no... there was no way for us to get out. by the time we were stuck in the middle of it and the fire had sprung up, there was...there was no getting out by vehicle. as for travis, his home too was destroyed. my bed. i feel kind of numb right now, honestly. this is something that isn't recognisable to me, you know, it's the most at home i've ever felt. the official investigation won't conclude for months yet, and it will take years to rebuild. but as tourists come back to the area, they'll drive by this memorial to the dead, right by the bypass, a road that was supposed to be a lifeline to people trying to escape from lahaina. hello there. we're starting our sunday morning off on a cold and frosty note across much of the north and east of the uk, with some lingering dense mist and fog patches around. but a big change taking place across more southern and western areas. we've got a weather front spreading northwards, that's going to bring outbreaks of rain and we'll see the rain and cloud spill northwards through the course of the day. i think it's much of northern scotland which will tend to stay dry with some sunshine all day. now some of the rain will be fairly heavy in places, particularly in towards northern ireland. the breeze picking up as well, but cold, frosty and foggy with some sunshine across northern and eastern areas. there could be just a few showers peppering northeastern coasts of scotland in towards the northern hours, but most places will see the sunshine, areas that don't have mist and fog, mind you. but northern ireland into wales, the midlands, southern and western parts of england will start cloudy and wet and it looks pretty damp here for the remembrance sunday services. now that area of cloud and rain will continue to move its way northwards. we'll see a little bit of brightness pushing into the southwest and south wales later on, but even here we'll have a few hefty showers. temperature—wise turning milder in the southwest but cold across northern and eastern areas. and like i mentioned, it's northern and eastern scotland which will hold on to the sunshine. through sunday night, that weather front eventually pushes northwards. so with cloudier skies across scotland, northern england, it will be less cold, but it turns much wetter and windier across england, wales and northern ireland towards the end of the night. and very mild here, 12 to 14 degrees, but less cold across the north and i don't think we should see any frost problems. this renewed area of low pressure could cause some issues. we've already got a yellow rain warning in force for northern ireland. the rain will be heavy and persistent and we could see gales, even severe gales, around the irish sea coast as we move through the course of monday. that rain pushes its way northwards into scotland through the afternoon. it brightens up for northern ireland and certainly for england and wales later on, could see one or two showers around, but it will be the temperatures you'll notice on monday, much milder, 12 to 15 degrees, even 8 to 11 degrees across scotland. it does remain fairly unsettled, though, as we move through the new week with areas of low pressure bringing more unwelcome rainfall, but the signs of it perhaps turning a little bit drier and brighter for many areas by the end of the week. live from washington, this is bbc news. war rages around gaza's hospitals, with desperate conditions inside. israel's military says it will help evacuate babies from the main hospital. saudi arabia and other muslim countries call for an immediate end to israel's military operations in gaza. and us house republicans propose a spending bill aimed at averting a looming government shutdown. hello, i'm karl nasman. aid groups are warning of a deepening health crisis in gaza. the world health organization says it has lost communication with its contacts at al—shifa hospital, gaza's largest. the israeli army denies accusations of strikes on al—shifa, although they have admitted to fighting in the area. in this video you can see hospitals operating in darkness in the north, as doctors without borders says hospitals have come under relentless bombardment for the past 2a hours. a surgeon at al—shifa told the bbc power, water and food have run out into the hospital's intensive care unit had been hit. the idf says it will assist in the evacuation of babies from the paediatric department at the hospital on sunday. meanwhile, israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, says his forces have completed the encirclement of gaza city, an acknowledgement they were fighting on the outskirts of al—shifa hospital. israel has accused hamas of operating tunnels underneath the hospital, something hamas denies. for more on all this, i spoke with our diplomatic correspondence paul adams, who is injerusalem. thanks forjoining us.

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