pics

Oh man that makes me sad. I remember seeing that when I was 12 on a trip there and it being the coolest tree I had ever seen.

Yeah, that husk of a building to the left of the banyan tree was a museum. That sucks, that whole area was so nice, tons of shops, restaurants, lots of homes, I think that was a school in the bottom right corner.

I have childhood memories in this town, the tree really sticks with you, and the heritage there is/was quite notable. Very sad to see this unfold over the last few days.

Iirc banyons are phoenix plants, they like fire.

That's a literal firestorm.

Holy fuck.

I've been on the Internet for almost 30 years and that's one of the most intense videos I've ever seen.

Even as a person who's gone through the Almeda fires in Southern Oregon, this is one of the most horrifying videos I've watched. The entire area seems to be engulfed in flames, I hope everyone is able to evacuate safely.

Ditto

Same

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Yes. See that big black smoldering mess behind that white building? That is (was?) the Banyan Tree. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banyan_tree_in_Lahaina

Other pics I've seen look like a 90-100% loss of structures.

Yes unfortunately it looks like the entire town is gone

Lahaia town is a historic town (as stated in the article), so i assume they did not yet have the same standards as they do today yet.

Lahaina was a old historic town, many of the buildings weren't updated to code. Especially on Front Street where most of the damage seems to be

Lots of historic buildings here but even if they were up to today's standards they wouldn't have had a chance. This fire was fueled by drought and 80mph winds. California has tons of new buildings that burn down with winds half that speed. It was just a crazy force moving through.

Do sea lions live in Hawaii?

Keep in mind Lahaina is laid out like a long thin strip between the ocean and a bypass road.

Wildfire came from the other side of the bypass and came towards the ocean. So likely hit the whole town all at once. Front street is the Main Street parallel to the ocean and cars would get stuck in a traffic jam easily.

Wouldn’t take long for the fire to cross the bypass and make it all the way to the ocean.