Maui County's Bungling Revolutionaries Postscript

Responding to reader comments about the purported use of DEWs to ignite, maintain, and amplify the Lahaina Fire of August 8, 2023.

Several readers responded to my post yesterday (Maui County’s Bungling Revolutionaries) by urging me to endorse the theory that Lahaina was set ablaze and the fire intensified and maintained by the use of Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs) such as the following:

• High Energy Lasers (HEL)

• Millimeter Wave Weapons

• High Power Microwave Weapons

For the record, I have lived on Maui for a total of four years, and I know the history, geography, and meteorology well. I have personally observed multiple brush fires on Maui, fanned by strong trade winds during the summer months. They can be extremely difficult to extinguish, even with multiple helicopters working the fire with large helibuckets.

In the summer of 2019 I went surfing almost every day at Lahaina Breakwall, and I strongly perceived back then the town was at very high risk of being incinerated on a dry and windy day.

The name Lahaina is Hawaiian for “Merciless Sun,” and some days it was too hot to sit on a surfboard to wait for a set. I became adept at submerging in the water until the moment before the set arrived.

In the Merciless Sun, Lahaina Breakwall, August 2019

I interviewed multiple witnesses of the 2018 fire who told me vivid stories of the wind-driven brush fire on the hill, galloping towards the town with breathtaking speed. With a high wind driving down onto the town, a brush fire can generate airborne embers that strike wooden structures and set them ablaze in conditions that resemble a blast furnace.

The town of Lahaina was largely constructed out of seasoned Douglas fir lumber with a moisture content that was probably somewhere around 10%. Compare this to the famous Lahaina Banyan — a living tree (drawing water from the ground) with a moisture content of close to 100%.

To understand the critical importance of moisture content, consider that palm groves in Vietnam often survived Napalm attacks that burned up to 1,470 to 2,190 degrees Fahrenheit — sufficient heat to melt aluminum disc brakes and seriously deform steel.

Note that the trapped cars on Front Street were downwind of huge wooden structures that acted as blast furnaces, subjecting the vehicles to enormous heat. Once their tires ignited and their fuel tanks were ruptured, the rubber and gasoline added further fuel to the fire.

Generally, Lahaina was full of cars, with fuel tanks full of gasoline, as well as propane gas tanks and solar panel batteries, all of which are extremely combustible materials.

After the Lahaina Plantation was shut down in 1999 and the irrigation turned off, the sugar cane on the hills above town was replaced by invasive grass species such as African Guinea grass (Megathyrsus maximus) that rapidly grows during the rainy season in Lahaina (approximately November to April) and then dries out during the summer months.

On August 8, 2023 — according to multiple witnesses I interviewed—the wind was gusting up to eighty miles per hour from the West Maui Mountains, just east of Lahaina, down the slope, and directly onto town.

The conditions were very hot and dry, and the downslope wind —often referred to as a Chinook wind—had a further drying effect because as air descends, it compresses and heats up, a phenomenon knows as adiabatic heating.

With extremely high winds and no rain in the forecast, the National Weather Service issued a Red Flag (fire) warning the day before the fire.

All of the above, combined with a low-tech ignition source, were perfectly sufficient conditions for burning the town of Lahaina to the ground — a scenario that I predicted could easily happen while observing the town during my daily surf sessions in the summer of 2019.

Having written true crime books and a daily newsletter about corruption and multiple proven conspiracies, I understand the grave suspicion that the Lahaina Fire of August 8, 2023 was not merely a natural disaster.

I agree. I believe it is no mere accident that no measures were taken to protect Lahaina from fire—especially after the fire of August 2018 almost incinerated the town.

Nevertheless, I have not endorsed the DEW theory for the following reasons.

1). Simple arson is common on Maui, especially among the island’s homeless population that is addicted to crystal meth. I have viewed security camera footage of homeless people deliberately starting brush fires that spread into residential areas.

2). The clear and present danger of fire was so high on August 8, 2023 that all manner of simple devices could have started it, in addition to the official explanation that it initially ignited by a downed power line.

3). I haven’t seen sufficient evidence to compel me to believe that a DEW was used.

4). As a matter of logic, I do not see the rationale of using a sophisticated, military grade weapon to ignite and maintain a fire when simple arson would suffice.

5). Throughout history, cities largely composed of wooden structures have experienced massive fires that have burned much larger urban areas than that of Lahaina. Think about Rome (64 AD), the Great Chicago Fire (1871) the Great Boston Fire (1872), the Great Fire of Toronto (1904) and the San Francisco Earthquake Fire (1906).

6). I have consulted with an experienced fire investigator. He too has not seen sufficient evidence to compel him to believe that a DEW was used. In investigating fires over the years, he has often marveled at the odd and idiosyncratic features of burn patterns.

As always, many thanks for reading my posts, and thanks for your thoughtful and critical commentary.