but the job is not yet even 50% complete. while the exact cause of the wildfires is being investigated, mounting evidence shows downed power lines could have played a role. john sudworth reports from maui. maui s fight continues. this pilot, hovering above a swimming pool. now being used to douse the flames further down the hill. these homes, some distance from the destroyed coastal town of lahaina, are in the centre of the island where, last week, just before the fires, the cameras at this bird sanctuary captured a bright flash. staff believe it is a tree falling on a powerline. shortly afterwards, flames can be seen in the forest. ross hart saw something similar before his home burned down.
this pilot, hovering above a swimming pool, now being used to douse the flames further down the hill. these homes, some distance from the destroyed coastal town of lahaina, are in the centre of the island where, last week, just before the fires, the cameras at this bird sanctuary captured a bright flash. staff believe it is a tree falling on a powerline. shortly afterwards, flames can be seen in the forest. ross hart saw something similar before his home burned down. we could hear some trees falling here and there in the distance. one big one fell here on the bridge and it knocked over the powerlines. and then you saw the house. you could see it burn? i saw it begin to burn and they wouldn t let me stay to watch it. they were dragging me out because the embers were starting to come over my truck and stuff.
ceiling. by the time it refocuses, you re going to see the flames. at the same time of that first flash, the washington post reports ten cent sensors went off in the town. that s likely an arc flash, something happens when a powerline gets knocked down. hawaii electric has not responded but they did release a statement. we know there s speculation about what started the fires, and we are working hard to figure out exactly what happened. mike valerio is live for us. we re hearing that hot spots continue to flare up in many areas several days from the initial fires. reporter: that s right. good morning to you. firefighters still have tons of work ahead of them, but i think that the emotional gravity point that we re focused on here so deeply is the effort to identify the human remains that are found
day. i was taking videos of a lawn chair that had fallen into the pool. and it was just, like, whoa, this is really windy today. and i had seen a fire started 5:00 a.m. on the mountainside and had called the police department, and it was from a powerline. and at 3:30, we smelled smoke and looked outside and could see a little bit of gray a few blocks away. and immediately i got my partner and said we need to leave, grab some things. so we got the dog and we re walking down the stairs and the wind is just howling. we re seeing roofs that are flying off and we re trying to just get the car. people are just kind of standing around in my condo complex, like what do we do. we heard it was a complete gridlock and we weren t going to be able to get out, but we knew we had to try. and at that point we started calling friends to see if they knew where the fire was because it was turning black so quickly, we didn t know which way the
PALERMO — Down on the hillock, just beneath the sprawling trees, is a gravesite. According to Troy Nelson, who owns that land, those gravestones belong to people who came up