AP PHOTOS: Nearly a week after Maui wildfire, islanders survey aftermath and look ahead to recovery

The wildfire that swept throughout Maui almost every week in the past turned one of many nation’s most celebrated island vistas into an ashen moonscape and killed at the least 99 folks, a quantity that officers warn might rise by scores because the search continues.

The deadliest wildfire within the U.S. in additional than a century devoured properties and companies, blackened vehicles and left solely ruins the place thriving neighborhoods as soon as stood. In some locations, the flames superior as quick as a automobile at freeway velocity — a mile a minute.

Probably the most critical blaze swept into Lahaina on Tuesday and destroyed almost each constructing within the city of 13,000. When the flames have been out and the smoke cleared, all that remained was a grid of grey rubble wedged between the blue ocean and luxurious inexperienced slopes.

Now begins an extended restoration as survivors mourn the useless, search groups search for extra victims within the charred particles and households attempt to start anew.

The reason for the wildfire is beneath investigation. Fueled by a dry summer time and powerful winds from a passing hurricane, the flames raced by way of parched brush protecting the island.

The hearth was Hawaii’s deadliest pure catastrophe in many years, surpassing a 1960 tsunami that killed 61 folks. A tsunami in 1946 killed greater than 150 on the Massive Island.