From what I remember, there's not much brush, much less underbrush, on the west part of Maui. Just scrub, drought conditions, and high winds - perfect, and perfectly tragic - recipe for wildfires. Not to mention, closely built, old wooden buildings in historic Lahaina.My guess is they have the same problem as CA, they refuse to do what's needed to clean out the underbrush and instead let "nature take it's course" or something. Morons.
Now, I'm sure the leftwing environmental policies in Hawaii might have contributed to there being no mitigation strategy for such wildfires. But IIRC trying to irrigate west Maui has always been a fool's errand.
I'm just glad that we got to see Lahaina, and the Banyan tree, before the fire. We were there not quite one year ago. I'm sure they'll rebuild, and hopefully be able to nurse the Banyan tree back to health. But everything will be different.