“There’s no doubt in my mind,” one expert told Newsweek about boats offshore being negatively affected by wildfires.
As of Sunday, more than 1,000 people remained missing as rescue teams continued to search for victims affected by the deadliest wildfire in over 100 years in the United States. The death toll, also as of Sunday according to Maui County, had risen to 93 people and has climbed steadily since the fires began raging last Tuesday. Hawaii Governor Josh Green has issued his fifth emergency proclamation.
Nearly 4,500 residents of about 72,500 tracked by the Hawaiian Electric Company are still without power as of Monday morning, according to the U.S. Power Outage Map. Lahaina has been particularly impacted by the wildfires, with images and videos depicting neighborhoods in ashes.
Videos have circulated online promoting the conspiracy theory questioning how and why boats are aflame off the shores of Maui. One such video, uploaded by a TikTok user in an undisclosed location, contains ominous music and shows glowing images of devastation lighting up the night sky.
“With the high winds blowing offshore lots of glowing red-hot embers could rain down on boats, and if they land on a flammable object on a boat, could start it on fire,” Frelich said.
