Maui Strong 808: 6 months later, police review response to deadly fires

Six months after the island of Maui was ravaged by deadly wildfires, police revisit their response.

On a wind-whipped August evening, Maui police officers Calvin Dawn and Kameryn Pupunu had just wrapped up homicide training when they started to hear radio calls for evacuation in Lahaina, the historic enclave on the other side of their island.

They had no way of knowing then just how desperate those calls would grow in the hours to come on that day six months ago, Aug. 8, 2023 -- or how many there would be.

"We thought it was just going to be a normal fire, maybe evacuate a few houses, a few streets," Pupunu told ABC News. "But, yeah, it was not like that at all."

Fueled by ferocious gusts from a Pacific hurricane, wildfires developed in four different Maui locations that day. The hardest hit – Lahaina: the blaze ravaged the community, killing 100 people. All told, the fires burned more than 6,600 acres and left thousands of homes and other structures in ruins. It would quickly rank as the worst natural disaster in Hawaii history, officials say, and America's deadliest wildfire in over a century.

The Hawaiian word for "guardian" or "protector" is kia'i. When a fire breaks out, firefighters are first to get the call to respond. But police are close behind: they are responsible for rescuing and evacuating the community -- tasks that are infinitely more difficult on a remote island.