Maui wildfire devastation happened fast, is all-encompassing: Will Cain
'Fox & Friends Weekend' co-host Will Cain tells 'The Faulkner Focus' his mom is on Maui and is still trying to evacuate.
"Fox and Friends" host Will Cain joined "The Faulkner Focus" on Thursday to discuss the devastating wildfires in Maui and said his mother was still on Maui and trying to evacuate.
Cain said his mother and her husband were still on the island in West Maui, which is roughly two miles from Lahaina.
"They are safe. I made contact with them last night. There's just no power. Cell service is completely spotty. But I’m happy to share they are safe and the project now is to get them out of West Maui. There's one road, it's now open. The county officials and everyone is trying to evacuate people to the other side where there is an airport flying people out of Maui, the devastation as you see on your screen is just all encompassing," Cain said.
He said that he's spent every summer in Maui and just got back from the island two weeks ago.
People watch as smoke and flames fill the air from raging wildfires on Front Street in downtown Lahaina, Maui on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023. (Alan Dickar via AP)
"36 people dead. I just got a text from a friend who runs a business out of Lahaina, a charter catamaran business. He said he heard sirens all night long. He's thinking and he's fearful that the 36 number will be low," he said.
The Fox host also said there is a big homeless population in Maui as well.
"I just can't imagine how they would have faired through this devastation," he added. "My friends have told me it happened so incredibly fast with 80 mile-an-hour winds that no one had notice."
Cain also said that Maui wasn't just a tourist destination.
Smoke and flames fill the air from raging wildfires on Front Street in downtown Lahaina, Maui on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023. . (Alan Dickar via AP) (Alan Dickar via AP)
LIVE UPDATES: FIRES RAGE ACROSS HAWAII AS HURRICANE DORA AIDES IN SPREAD OF FLAMES
"This is a town that's got an amazing story in American history," Cain said. "It was the capital of the kingdom of Hawaii in the 1800s and then it became a center of the Christian missionary community in Hawaii where missionaries from the East Coast would take these horrible voyages across all the way across the world to go preach gospel and the word of God and it is full of missions and churches that date back in the 1800s."
"And then in becomes the global whaling industry center, full of, on the other end of the spectrum Harris, bars and restaurants. All of it dating back well over a century, all this collided in this beautiful town of Lahaina. 12,000 people live there. Beautiful front street. Everybody who visited knows what I’m talking about, and all of it Harris, all of it is gone," he continued.
This photo provided by County of Maui shows fire and smoke filling the sky from wildfires on the intersection at Hokiokio Place and Lahaina Bypass in Maui, Hawaii on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023. (Zeke Kalua/County of Maui via AP) (Zeke Kalua/County of Maui via AP)
Wildfires raging across Hawaii has killed at least 36 people as of Thursday morning.
The fire tore through the town of Lahaina as strong winds whipping from Hurricane Dora passing about 500 miles to the south fueled the blaze.
Fox News' Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
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