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Deadly Lahaina wildfire erupted from earlier brushfire that was believed to have been extinguished, investigation finds
The wildfire that killed at least 101 people on Maui last year erupted from an earlier brushfire caused by downed power lines that firefighters believed they had extinguished, officials confirmed Wednesday as they presented their findings on the cause of the tragedy.
The Aug. 8, 2023, blaze —the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century— was long known to have emerged in the afternoon, in the same area as a fire that began early that morning. Driven by strong, erratic winds, the fire raced through the historic town of Lahaina, destroying thousands of buildings, overcoming people trapped in their cars and forcing some residents to flee into the ocean.
It has been unclear whether the blaze was a rekindling of the morning fire after firefighters spent hours dousing it or a separate one. The answer could prove significant to questions about liability for the destruction, though a tentative $4 billion settlement has been reached.
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In presenting their findings, officials with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Maui Fire Department did not address liability, but found that it was a rekindling of the morning fire.
The rekindling was most likely caused by high winds that blew undetected embers into the dry gully, they said.
A Hawaiian Electric power line fell early on the morning of Aug. 8, sparking a fire in overgrown brush near the edge of town. Fire crews responded and stayed for several hours until they believed the fire was extinguished. After they left, flames were spotted again and though firefighters rushed back, they were no match for the wind and flames.
Communication between the police and fire departments was spotty, cellphone networks were down and emergency officials did not activate the emergency sirens that might have warned residents to evacuate. Power lines and poles had fallen in many locations throughout town, and police blocked some roads to protect residents from potentially dangerous power lines. First responders also had trouble getting a firm answer from Hawaiian Electric representatives if the power had been cut to the area.
The blocked roads contributed to gridlock that left fleeing people trapped in their cars as the flames advanced. Others died in their homes or outside as they tried to escape. The death toll surpassed that of the 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California, which left 85 dead and destroyed the town of Paradise.
In the months since, thousands of Lahaina residents have sued various parties they believe to be at fault for the fire, including Hawaiian Electric, Maui County and the state of Hawaii. The defendants have often tried to point fingers at each other, with Hawaiian Electric saying the county shouldn’t have left the first fire unattended, and Maui County contending the electric utility failed to take proper care with the power grid. Exactly who was responsible for clearing brush and maintaining area has also been a point of contention among the defendants, along with the utility’s lack of a public safety power shut-off program.
A report last month conducted for the Hawaii attorney general’s office by the Fire Safety Research Institute found “no evidence” that Hawaiian officials made preparations for a wildfire, despite days of warnings that critical fire weather was about to arrive.
A few days before the one-year anniversary of the wildfires, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green announced a $4 billion settlement. That’s the amount the defendants — including Hawaiian Electric, the state, Maui County, large landowners and others — have agreed to pay to settle claims.
But the deal is tied up in court, awaiting a decision from the Hawaii Supreme Court on whether insurance companies can go after the defendants separately to recoup what they’ve paid to policyholders. Lawyers for people seeking compensation fear allowing insurance companies to sue Hawaiian Electric and others will subvert the deal, drain what is available to pay fire victims and lead to prolonged litigation.
In a June survey from the Hawaii State Rural Health Association, 71% of Maui County respondents who were directly impacted by the fires said they have since had to cut back on food and groceries for personal financial reasons. The survey found that most residents of Maui were more worried than hopeful about the future.
The fire has also taken a mental toll on the community. Before the fire, about 12,000 people resided in Lahaina. Of those, 10% have sought help for mental health, according to the Hawaii State Department of Health.
At least six people were killed and seven injured in an Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in Beirut overnight, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said, as governments around the world scrambled to evacuate their citizens from the country.
The airstrike hit near the residential Bashoura district.
Residents reported a sulfur-like smell following the attack, and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency accused Israel of using internationally banned phosphorous bombs. Human rights groups have in the past accused Israel of using white phosphorus incendiary shells on towns and villages in conflict-hit southern Lebanon.
Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images
Israel was pursuing a ground incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah while conducting strikes in Gaza that killed dozens, including children. The Israeli military said eight soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.
On Wednesday, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting Wednesday to address the spiraling conflict in Middle East.
Iran’s ambassador to the U.N. said his country launched nearly 200 missiles at Israel on Tuesday as a deterrent to further Israeli violence, while his Israeli counterpart called the barrage an “unprecedented act of aggression.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed late Tuesday to retaliate, and an Iranian commander threatened wider strikes on infrastructure if Israel did so. U.S. President Biden said Wednesday that he would not support an Israeli attack targeting Iran’s nuclear program.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.
Japan on Thursday dispatched two Self Defense Force planes to prepare for a possible airlift of Japanese citizens from Lebanon. And the Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Thursday her government had booked 500 seats on commercial aircraft for Australian citizens, permanent residents and their families to leave Lebanon on Saturday.
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A joint federal intelligence bulletin obtained by CBS News warns of potential violent extremism and hate crimes committed in response to the one-year mark of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas and the resulting conflict in Gaza.
The bulletin, authored by FBI, Department of Homeland Security and National Counterterrorism Center, was first disseminated by federal law enforcement to local law enforcement partners late Wednesday.
The agencies found that the one-year mark of the attack “as well as any further significant escalations” in the Israel-Hamas war “may be a motivating factor for violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators to engage in violence or threaten public safety,” the bulletin read.
The bulletin provided several recent examples of such threats, including the Sept. 6 arrest of a Pakistani national by Canadian authorities who was accused of planning a mass shooting at a Jewish center in New York City.
The bulletin also comes as tensions have continued to ramp up in the Middle East. Following an Israeli airstrike on Beirut last week which killed longtime Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, Iran on Tuesday responded with a missile salvo on Israel, launching nearly 200 ballistic missiles, most of which were intercepted by Israel’s missile defense systems. Hamas and Hezbollah are both proxies of Iran.
Israel also began limited ground operations in southern Lebanon this week.
Following Iran’s missile attack, a senior DHS official told CBS News during a briefing Wednesday, “I don’t know that we’ve got a crystal clear assessment on that at this point. We are literally in the earliest days of trying to understand what exactly Iranian intentions might be. We do, though, assess that Iran has a global capacity and a global capability, that it can draw, that it can target U.S. interests around the world – that it certainly has the reach and capacity to do, to carry out, to engage with individuals here inside the United States in ways that present potential threat to the United States, here in the homeland.”
The official added that this is an area of “near daily engagement” between DHS, FBI and other law enforcement partners.
Iran has been involved in “a variety of other efforts in the aftermath of Oct. 7,” the official noted, including “putting out fabricated material to try to increase people’s anger about the post-Oct. 7 situation.”
The bulletin cautioned that “the expansion of the conflict further into the region could serve as motivation for violence against Jewish, Israeli, or American targets in retaliation for civilian deaths, and we cannot preclude the possibility that threat actors in the United States will react with violence to the death” of Nasrallah.
Intelligence analysts revealed in the bulletin that the Oct. 7 attack and Israel-Hamas war “have been cited as sociopolitical grievances influencing some individuals mobilization to violence in the United States,” adding that “hate crimes surged shortly following the attacks and have decreased over the past several months to levels consistent with reporting prior to the conflict, a trend that mirrors hate crimes following previous international conflicts or events.”
In the immediate months after Oct. 7, reports of antisemitic incidents surged in the U.S. The Anti-Defamation League said it recorded 2,031 antisemitic incidents nationwide between Oct. 7 and Dec. 7 of 2023, a 337% increase compared with the same period in 2022.
“Over the past year, we have observed violent extremist activity and hate crimes in the United States linked to the conflict,” the bulletin read. “Jewish, Muslim, or Arab institutions, including synagogues, mosques, and community centers, and large public gatherings, such as memorials, vigils, or other demonstrations, present attractive targets for violent attacks or for hoax threats by a variety of threat actors, including homegrown violent extremists, domestic violent extremists, and hate crime perpetrators who may view the anniversary as an opportunity to conduct an attack or other high-profile, illegal activity.”
The bulletin also warns that foreign terrorist organizations have created media that compares the Oct. 7 and 9/11 attacks and encourages “lone attackers to use simple tactics like firearms, knives, Molotov cocktails, and vehicle ramming against Western targets in retaliation for deaths in Gaza. Individuals inspired by this online messaging could act alone to commit an attack with little to no warning.”
