BURNED TO ASH
Maui fires photos reveal devastation as 55 dead & hundreds missing after blaze destroys towns and threatens celeb homes
SHOCKING photos reveal the heartbreaking devastation in Maui as wildfires continue to sweep across the Hawaiian island - killing at least 55 people.
Maui has been obliterated by flames since blazes started breaking out on Tuesday morning - with more than 1,700 homes and buildings destroyed.
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Hurricane Dora stirred up intense winds from hundreds of miles south in the Pacific Ocean - sparking horror fires.
Officials in Maui County confirmed 36 deaths on Wednesday and another 19 on Thursday as the fires rage - with around 1,000 people missing.
But the toll is expected to rise as flames have unleashed destruction on the resort town of Lahaina and continue to spread.
Horrifying aerial photos lay bare the shocking extent of devastation caused by the merciless blazes, with once bustling areas reduced to bleak, charred landscapes.
Officials warned it will take many years and billions of dollars to rebuild areas razed to the ground - with celebrity's homes at risk.
Oprah Winfrey - who owns almost 2,000 acres of land on Maui and has lived there for 15 years - has been seen handing out supplies.
The talk show star visited evacuees at the War Memorial Gymnasium on Thursday and spent time chatting with distraught residents.
She asked what supplies people needed before returning with shampoo, pillows and diapers.
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Oprah is among A-listers including Jess Bezos and Clint Eastwood own properties on the island.
It comes as Governor Josh Green said the inferno that reduced much of Lahaina to smoldering ruins was the worst natural disaster in the state's history.
It has left thousands of people homeless and leveled as many as 1,000 buildings as rescue crews continue search operations for those missing.
Green said: "There's no power, no internet, no phone, no radio. You compound some of that.
"There's around 1,000 missing.
"It doesn't mean that many have passed - I'm not saying that at all - but because we can't contact them we can't know."
Green said more than 1,700 homes and buildings have been destroyed - calling the devastation "heartbreaking".
He added: "What we've seen today has been catastrophic."
"What we saw was likely the largest natural disaster in Hawaii state history."
Green confirmed that the death toll is likely to rise.
"The federal government will be supporting our full recovery," Green said, noting that thousands of people need homes.
"If you have the capacity to take someone in from West Maui, please do," Green urged.
"There is tragedy on the roadside and there is tragedy in the homes of Lahaina."
Green said that the fires will likely become the deadliest natural disaster in the state since the 1961 hurricane that killed 61 people.
“We haven’t had a loss of life instance like this for many years,” he told .
“As we get into the many hundreds of houses that were overwhelmed by fire, we have great concern we will find the remains of people that were not able to escape.”
'ALL THE LANDMARKS WERE GONE'
Lahaina, a historic part of the island, has been devastated by the fires.
Brian Schatz, a US senator from the state, said Lahaina is "almost totally burnt to the ground."
Resident Tiffany Kidder Winn's gift store was among the businesses destroyed.
Winn told the that charred vehicles could be seen - some with bodies inside.
“It looked like they were trying to get out, but were stuck in traffic and couldn’t get off Front Street,” she said of the vehicles.
Of the destruction in the community, Winn said: “I couldn’t even tell where I was because all the landmarks were gone.”
Other residents shared harrowing tales of narrowly escaping the flames.
“We barely made it out,” Kamuela Kawaakoa, 34, told the AP of his family.
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Residents were forced to jump into the ocean to escape the raging flames.
The Coast Guard rescued at least 14 people who jumped into the water to flee the fires.
More than 2,100 people have been displaced and have sought safety at shelters that have opened due to the fires.
Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke said on Wednesday that some of the centers were "overrun."
Luke that Maui's hospital system "was overburdened with burn patients, people suffering from inhalation."
Burn patients were being flown from Maui to Oahu, reported.
"The reality is that we need to fly people out of Maui to give them burn support," Luke said.
"911 is down. Cell service is down. Phone service is down. And that's been part of the problem."
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Tourists, meanwhile, were urged to stay away from Maui.
About 11,000 tourists fled the island on Wednesday with another 1,500 following suit on Thursday, according to Ed Sniffen, state transportation director.
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