FRONT­LINE’s new doc­u­men­tary, Maui’s Dead­ly Firestorm, delves into the dev­as­tat­ing wild­fire that swept through Lahaina, Hawaii, in August 2023, becom­ing the dead­liest U.S. wild­fire in over a cen­tu­ry. Sparked by a downed pow­er line and fueled by Hur­ri­cane Dora’s high winds, the fire claimed over 100 lives, dis­placed thou­sands, and exposed sig­nif­i­cant gaps in emer­gency pre­pared­ness and response. The doc­u­men­tary, direct­ed by Xinyan Yu and pro­duced by Christi­na Ava­l­os, recon­structs the events through sur­vivor tes­ti­monies, har­row­ing footage, and an analy­sis of pub­lic records, reveal­ing a tragedy decades in the mak­ing.

The film high­lights the years of warn­ings from experts and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers, such as Lahaina’s Ke‘eaumoku Kapu, who raised alarms about Maui’s vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty to wild­fires. Despite these warn­ings, insuf­fi­cient invest­ments in pre­ven­tion and pre­pared­ness left the island ill-equipped to face such a dis­as­ter. FRONTLINE exam­ines crit­i­cal mis­steps, includ­ing the deci­sion not to acti­vate emer­gency sirens, blocked evac­u­a­tion routes, and broad­er sys­temic fail­ures. The doc­u­men­tary also explores the increas­ing impact of cli­mate change and land­scape changes on Maui’s fire risks, offer­ing a sober­ing look at how such dis­as­ters could be mit­i­gat­ed in the future.

Pre­mier­ing dig­i­tal­ly on Decem­ber 17, 2024, and air­ing on PBS on Jan­u­ary 7, 2025, Maui’s Dead­ly Firestorm rais­es urgent ques­tions about account­abil­i­ty and pre­pared­ness. Fea­tur­ing first­hand accounts from sur­vivors, vic­tims’ fam­i­lies, and offi­cials like Hawaii Gov­er­nor Josh Green, the doc­u­men­tary not only hon­ors the resilience of those affect­ed but also under­scores the crit­i­cal need to learn from this tragedy to pre­vent future cat­a­stro­phes.