lint Hansen of Maui Real Estate Radio/TMX via ReutersWildfires, pushed by powerful winds, raced through Lahaina, Hawaii, on Aug. 8 and 9, 2023, leaving a charred and smoldering landscape across the tourist town of about 13,000 residents that was once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii. At least 36 people died, Maui County officials said. Others were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard after going into the ocean to escape the flames.Fires were still burning on Aug. 10, both in Maui’s tourist-filled
Josh Edelson / AFP via GettyOver the past two decades, a staggering 21.8 million Americans found themselves living within 3 miles of a large wildfire. Most of those residents would have had to evacuate, and many would have been exposed to smoke and emotional trauma from the fire.Nearly 600,000 of them were directly exposed to the fire, with their homes inside the wildfire perimeter.Those statistics reflect how the number of people directly exposed to wildfires more than doubled from 2000 to 2019