Firefighters continue to fight on Thursday the fire that has been fuelled by a dry summer and strong winds from a passing hurricane.

The blaze started on Tuesday and took the island by surprise, racing through parched growth and neighbourhoods in the historic town of Lahaina, a tourist destination that dates to the 1700s and is the biggest community on the island’s west side.

Maui County said late on Wednesday that at least 36 people had died, making it the deadliest US wildfire since the 2018 Camp Fire in California, which killed at least 85 people and laid waste to the town of Paradise.

The Hawaii toll could rise, though, as rescuers reach parts of the island that had been unreachable due to ongoing fires or obstructions.

Officials said earlier Wednesday that 271 structures had been damaged or destroyed and that dozens of people had been injured.

“We are still in life preservation mode. Search and rescue is still a primary concern,” Adam Weintraub, a spokesperson for Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, said on Thursday.

He said search and rescue teams still won’t be able to access certain areas until the fire lines are secure and they’re sure that they’re going to be able to get to those areas safely.

“What we have here is a natural disaster,” Weintraub said. “But we still got people in danger. We still have people who don’t have homes. We still have people who can’t find their loved ones.”

The flames left some people with mere minutes to act and led some to flee into the ocean.

As the fires raged, tourists were advised to stay away, and about 11,000 flew out of Maui on Wednesday, with at least another 1,500 people expected to leave via the airport on Thursday.

The fires were fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora passing far to the south.

It’s the latest in a series of disasters caused by extreme weather around the globe this summer. Experts say climate change is increasing the likelihood of such events.

The Big Island is also currently seeing blazes, Mayor Mitch Roth said, although there had been no reports of injuries or destroyed homes there.

As winds eased somewhat on Maui on Wednesday, pilots were able to view the full scope of the devastation.

Aerial video from Lahaina showed dozens of homes and businesses razed.

Smoking heaps of rubble lay piled high next to the waterfront, boats in the harbor were scorched, and gray smoke hovered over the leafless skeletons of charred trees.

Bissen, the Maui County mayor, said Wednesday that officials hadn’t yet begun investigating the immediate cause of the fires.

-AAP