What People Get Wrong This Week: Wildfires on Maui

Wildlife fires on Maui have become the deadliest in the US in more than 100 years. The rising death toll now stands at 111, with thousands missing. While most of the nation mourns and offers support to the residents of the devastated city of Lahaina, some respond by creating and spreading lies and conspiracy theories, even though the fires are still burning. Below are some of the half-truths and crazy theories that bring the facets of the popular unconscious to life.

Is the Biden administration paying only $700 to disaster victims?

Probably the most widespread and insidious misinformation about the Maui wildfires is the claim that the Biden administration is providing a $700 lump sum payment to residents affected by the fires. According to both the left and the right , this is an outrage and an insult to the victims of the fire. But these performatively outraged public opinionists are lying through an oversight, relying on the ignorance of their readers to advance the political narrative.

It is true that FEMA is offering a $700 lump sum payment to families affected by the Maui fire. These funds are distributed through the already existing FEMA Critical Needs Assistance program and are intended to provide immediate assistance to displaced people. But this 700 dollars is not all the assistance provided to victims of natural disasters. FEMA’s response includes military search and rescue, emergency food and water, emergency shelters, ongoing firefighting efforts, low interest disaster loans, assistance from the Army Corps of Engineers, and more.

And that’s just the immediate reaction, a week after the fires. Disaster management is a long-term process, and handing out money to disaster victims days after a tragic event is generally not considered an effective strategy. Ideally, when the specific needs of Maui residents are assessed, additional assistance will be available and funds will be dispersed. Whether FEMA’s initial response to the fires and its overall strategy is effective or not is a matter of opinion, but anger over this $700 payout is misplaced and it’s too early to judge the adequacy of a long-term response because it hasn’t happened yet.

Was the fire on Maui caused by a “direct action weapon”?

Increasingly, some Internet users are agreeing that the Maui fires were caused by direct-action weapons. According to the dumbest people you went to high school with, the government fired a laser from space to destroy Lahaina’s infrastructure and rebuild it as a “15-minute smart city.”

In support of the claims, they are posting videos of a transformer explosion in Louisiana , photos of a SpaceX launch , videos of conventional lightning strikes , and whatever else they call proof of an energy weapon strike.

Although no one can prove negative, and it is too early for the results of the investigation, all available evidence points to more mundane causes of the fire: it was dry; it was windy due to nearby Hurricane Dora; and something went wrong with the electrical system.

If you need video evidence, here’s footage from the Maui Bird Conservation Center of an “arc flash” likely caused by vegetation falling onto a power line that started the fire. It’s not the actual fire that burned most of Maui, but it was made that same night when high winds hit power lines and power lines went down all over the island.

In terms of 15 minute towns, Lahaina is a small town of about 12,000 people with a central old town area. It was already a walking city. Also, do you really think civil planning nerds have space lasers ?

Why didn’t the trees on Maui burn down?

Photographs of unburnt trees amid the flames of the Hawaiian wastelands suggest: “Look, it was not a wildfire at all!” or “So it must have been a bomb!” They are wrong and stupid. First, a lot of trees burned down . But more importantly, it’s not unusual for some trees not to burn in a wildfire. These types of fires spread through burning coals carried by strong winds, causing the most flammable fuel sources—in this case, mostly buildings and porches—to catch fire. Many of Maui’s trees, like many of the palms introduced to the island in the past, are mostly water and hard-barked, so it’s no wonder some of them didn’t catch fire. With every wildfire, strange forms of burning are evident. It’s just the way they go.

Oprah set fire to Maui?

Talk show host Oprah Winfrey owns more than 1,000 acres of land on Maui, but her estate was unaffected. She also owns land in Montecito, California, where there was a wildfire in 2017 and her house there didn’t burn down either. Apparently, that’s enough to make Oprah the number one arson suspect on Twitter (or X, or whatever the hell), where the post about it ends with “WAKE UP!!!!” has been viewed over 12 million times. The post said that Oprah set the fire to make land on Maui cheaper so she could buy more.

Nothing to expose here because it’s just insinuation, but Oprah’s Hawaiian ranch is near Hana, on the other side of Maui, about 72 miles from the Lahaina fire, so it’s no wonder it didn’t burn down. Also: Oprah could already buy the whole island without burning it to the ground.

Joe Biden said he’s not going to visit Maui because it’s a ‘non-swing state’?

Despite your weird aunt’s Facebook post, Joe Biden’s press secretary didn’t say he didn’t plan to visit Hawaii because it’s not a swing state. He’s actually going to Mau i.

The source of this nonsense is The Dunning-Krueger Times, a website that seems to exist to get people to share the news on social media by calling themselves “satire”. If you read the original article (and the rest of this site), you’ll notice a complete lack of humor. “Satire” on my ass.