FRONTLINE investigates the causes of the deadly August 2023 wildfire in Maui, the chaotic response, and the missed warnings.
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In August 2023, the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century reduced much of the Hawaiian town of Lahaina to ashes, killing more than 100 people and displacing thousands. Coming in the wake of a state investigation that found a broad cascade of failures, “Maui’s Deadly Firestorm” investigates critical missteps that day — and in the years prior, as the county and state were repeatedly advised to invest more money in prevention and preparedness, and as experts and residents raised concerns.
The documentary draws on harrowing footage filmed by those in the path of the inferno and firsthand accounts from survivors, victims’ families and friends, first responders, and local and state authorities. Through these accounts as well as a detailed analysis of over a thousand 911 calls and public records across multiple government agencies, it provides a wrenching, moment-by-moment reconstruction of the fire and its aftermath.
The film also examines how changes to the climate and landscape have made Maui increasingly vulnerable to fires and raises difficult questions about what led to the fire’s heavy toll.
“Maui’s Deadly Firestorm” is a FRONTLINE production with Mandarin Duck Films LLC. The writer, producer and director is Xinyan Yu. The producer is Christina Avalos. The senior producer is Frank Koughan. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.
Explore reporting related to “Maui’s Deadly Firestorm” on our website:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/mauis-deadly-firestorm/
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FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from the Charina Endowment Fund and from Koo and Patricia Yuen. Additional support for “Maui’s Deadly Firestorm” is provided by the Hollyhock Foundation.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Prologue
02:37 - How the Deadly August 2023 Wildfire in Maui Unfolded
07:52 - What Lahaina Residents Faced While Evacuating the Wildfire Areas
14:51 - Inside the Chaotic Response to the Maui Wildfires
17:42 - Maui’s Mayor and Police Department Defend Their Response
22:41 - Some Lahaina Residents Struggled to Find Escape Routes From the Wildfire
26:11 - What Happened After A Destructive August 2018 Wildfire in Lahaina
35:56 - Investigating Maui’s Wildfire Preparedness and Response Systems
41:24 - Residents Displaced by the August 2023 Maui Wildfire Hunt for Housing
43:32 - Lahaina Residents’ Housing and Recovery Efforts For Wildfire Survivors
52:02 - Credits