are currently staying in emergency shelters here. it s still unclear how the fires started, but the the island was ripe for an inferno. extremely dry conditions combined with 70 80 # mile mile-per-hour winds caused in part by passing hurricane dora created a challenging battle for the island s firefighters. residents say they were given little warning and that the island s emergency sirens didn t go off with texts being sent out instead. many escaping with just their lives, some in lahaina jumping into the water to save themselves as this town was razed by fire. the coast guard says it rescued 17 people. they were fortunate to have been there during the rescues at a time when the smoke lifted for them to be able to see the people who needed to be rescued. the helicopters that were launched were actually not able to approach closely enough during the worst of fire to see through the smoke. reporter: power and cell service is slowly starting to return to the west side of the island,
help as much as we can. we have just as much as everybody else and it sucks because we can t do nothing about it. our streets are gone. the whole town is gone. our life is gone. home after home gone. the rising death toll at 80 people as rescue crews searched for more victims. thousands of people have now left the island around 1400 are currently staying at emergency shelters here. it is still unclear how these fires started pre-but when they did ignite the island was a right for an inferno extremely dry conditions combined 70 to 80 mail and argos. hurricane dora fueled the flames create a challenging battle for the islands of firefighters. residents in lahaina and said they are given little warning of the approaching blaze the islands emergency sirens did not go off with the text being sent out instead. many escaping with just their lives. some in lahaina jumping into the water to save themselves as the town was raised by fire for the
each is still unclear how the fire started but when they did ignite, the island was ripe for an inferno. extrema dry conditions. [inaudible conversations] seventy 80 mile-per-hour winds caused in part by passing hurricane dora fueled the flames created challenging battle for the islands firefighters. residents and lahaina said they were given little warning of the approach and blazed the islands emergency sirens did not go off. with text being sent out instead many escaping with just their lives. some in lahaina jumping into the water to save themselves as this town was raised by far the coast guard said it rescued 17 people. they were fortunate to have been there during the rescues at a time when the smoke lifted for them to be able to see the people who needed to be rescued. the helicopters that were launched were not able to approach closely enough during the worst of the fire to see through the smoke. the power and cell service is slowly being restored on the west side of a m