The wildfires devastating Hawaii continue to have a rising death toll, as thousands of people try to get off the islands while firefighters struggle to get the flames under control.
More people were on their way to Boston from Hawaii on Friday morning.
A flight arrived from the islands at Logan Airport at 6:30 a.m., as many people remain stranded and try to get on the next plane out. While tourists flee, locals are having to deal with the devastating natural disaster, which has already claimed at least 55 lives.
President Biden approved a disaster declaration, deploying military personnel to help first responders put out the fires and search for an unknown number of missing people.
It's unclear what sparked the fire, but the combination of strong winds and drought have been fanning the flames.
There are three different fires burning on the island of Maui, including the historic town of Lahaina, while crews try to put out other hotspots on the big island.
Massachusetts native and traveling nurse Nicole Nagata just arrived in Hawaii, and her Maui-born husband has family there. She said that Lahaina is now unrecognizable.
“It’s the first time that we’ve been on the island and it feels so sad," she said. "It’s a somber, sad feeling and I wish that we could do more.”
Victoria Scafati and her husband are from South Boston, and were spending their honeymoon in Hawaii. They were in Lahaina days earlier, and were island hopping when the fires broke out.
"It's really devastating to see how this town was so significantly impacted by something so tragic," Scafati said. "People are still looking for loved ones. There's countless people that are still unaccounted for, so going there is not going to be quite helpful right now."
FEMA's administrator is expected to be on the ground in Maui on Friday to help with recovery efforts. Meanwhile, Hawaiian Airlines and Southwest are adding low-cost flights to help get people off of the island.
