A view of damage caused by wildfires in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, US, August 10, 2023.
The destructive wildfires that surged across Hawaii's Maui island in recent days have killed more than three dozen people, leaving behind smouldering ruins and forcing thousands to flee the onetime capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
The wildfires have put at risk significant structures and objects that hold importance in Hawaiian history, along with a magnificent banyan tree that serves as a representation of the island's cultural heritage.
According to The Guardian, across generations, the 150-year-old tree situated along the historic Front Street of Lahaina Town has fulfilled the role of a gathering spot, offering its leafy boughs shelter from the intense Hawaiian sun. This sprawling tree was the heart of the oceanside community, towering more than 60 feet (18 metres) and anchored by multiple trunks that span nearly an acre.
Imported from India and planted in front of the Lahaina Courthouse and Lahaina Harbour, the tree is one of the largest of its kind in the United States, according to CNN.
According to The New York Times, It was just eight feet tall when it was planted in 1873 to commemorate a Protestant mission to Lahaina a half-century earlier, but years of careful tending by residents helped it grow to more than 60 feet tall, according to the Lahaina Restoration Foundation, which manages more than a dozen historic sites in the town.
In Lahaina, people have encouraged the tree's growth by hanging jars of water to tug the most promising aerial roots towards the earth.
Meanwhile, some 271 structures were damaged or destroyed, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported, citing official reports from flyovers conducted by the US Civil Air Patrol and the Maui Fire Department.
The specific cause of the Maui wildfires has yet to be determined, officials said, but the National Weather Service said dry vegetation, strong winds, and low humidity fueled the fast-moving conflagration.
Wildfires occur every year in Hawaii, according to Thomas Smith, an environmental geography professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, but this year's fires are burning faster and bigger than usual.