Wildfires on Hawaii's Maui island and Big Island have killed dozens of people, forced thousands of residents and tourists to evacuate, and devastated the historic resort city of Lahaina, Reuters reports.
Video footage showed neighborhoods and businesses razed and vehicles burnt to a crisp across the western side of the island as the wildfires cut off most roads out of Lahaina, the largest tourist destination on Maui and home to multiple large hotels.
Such scenes of devastation have become all too familiar elsewhere in the world this summer. Wildfires, often caused by record-setting heat, forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in Greece, Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe. In western Canada, a series of unusually severe fires sent clouds of smoke over vast swathes of the U.S., polluting the air.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday (August 10) approved a disaster declaration for Hawaii and ordered federal aid be provided after a wildfire swept through a resort town on the U.S. state's Maui island.
