Aerial footage of complete devastation as the search for the missing continues in Lahaina. L.A. Times photographer Robert Gauthier says it is some of the worst destruction he’s seen in his 30-year career. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The death toll is now at 55 from the wildfires on Maui.
The wildfires are Hawaii’s deadliest natural disaster since a 1960 tsunami.
A man stands among the wreckage Thursday in Lahaina.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Jesus Vasquez sits in his van waiting to return to his home near Lahaina. He and other evacuees camped in a parking lot along the Honoapiilani Highway, hoping to be allowed back into town, two days after a devastating wildfire tore through the community. Vasquez said warning of the fast approaching firestorm was inadequate, but he is grateful for the food and supplies donated by people from other parts of the island.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Search crews walk the streets in Lahaina, looking for people among the wreckage of this week’s devastating wildfires.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Maui police officers on Thursday help pack truckloads of food and supplies collected by Level Up Fitness. Frustrated with the apparently slow response from local government, residents in surrounding communities are collecting donated items and arranging to deliver them to the devastated neighborhoods in Lahaina.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
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Buildings still smolder days after a wildfire gutted downtown Lahaina.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Watercraft bear the scars of Tuesday’s wildfire near downtown Lahaina.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
The Lopes/Vasquez family camp in a parking lot Thursday as they and many other evacuees wait to be allowed back to their home near Lahaina in Maui.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Sefo Roshenthal checks the welfare of 94-year-old Saki Iwamura and her daughter-in-law, Claire, who’ve been waiting nearly three hours at a checkpoint to get back to their Lahaina home.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
“Flying over Lahaina an immense sense of loss washed over me. Very similar to ground zero at 911. This is one of the worst disasters I’ve covered. There will be an alarming number of casualties when it’s all said and done.”
— Robert Gauthier
An aerial image on Thursday shows destroyed cars in Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii.
(Patrick Fallon / AFP / Getty Images)
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The hall of historic Waiola Church in Lahaina and nearby Lahaina Hongwanji Mission are engulfed in flames Tuesday along Wainee Street in Lahaina, Hawaii.
(Matthew Thayer/The Maui News )
A man walks along Front Street, past the burned carcasses of cars that couldn’t escape a catastrophic wildfire that swept through Lahaina.
Robert Gauthier has been with the Los Angeles Times since 1994. He was the photographer for a project detailing the failings of an L.A. public hospital that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for public service. Before The Times, Gauthier worked at the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Escondido Times-Advocate and the Bernardo News in San Diego County, his hometown.
