KAHULUI, United States, Aug 10, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - At least 36 people have died after a fast-moving wildfire turned a historic Hawaiian town to ashes, officials said Wednesday, as visitors asked to leave the island of Maui found themselves stranded at the airport.

The fires began burning early Tuesday, scorching thousands of acres and putting homes, businesses and 35,000 lives at risk on Maui, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said in a statement.

Strong winds and dry conditions put much of the state under a fire warning on Wednesday, with more fires burning on Hawaii's Big Island, the state agency said.

"As the firefighting efforts continue, 36 total fatalities have been discovered today amid the active Lahaina fire," the Maui county government said in a statement.

US Coast Guard officers had pulled at least a dozen people from the water as emergency services were overwhelmed by a disaster that appeared to have erupted almost without warning.

More than 270 buildings have been damaged or destroyed in the seriously affected town of Lahaina, on the island's west coast, officials said earlier on Wednesday.

"Much of Lahaina on Maui has been destroyed and hundreds of local families have been displaced," said Governor Josh Green of the 12,000-resident historic town popular with tourists.

Video posted on social media showed blazes tearing through the heart of the beachfront town and sending up huge plumes of black smoke.

"With lives lost and properties decimated, we are grieving with each other during this inconsolable time," Mayor Richard Bissen said in a video posted to the County of Maui's official Facebook page.

"In the days ahead, we will be stronger as a (community)..." he added, "as we rebuild with resilience and aloha."

- Stranded travelers, federal aid -

Nearly 1,000 people were sheltering in a community center and two gymnasiums in the Maui town of Kahului as of Wednesday night, down from about 2,100 on Tuesday, according to a county Facebook post, citing the American Red Cross.

Visitors to Maui were asked by Maui officials to leave the island "as soon as possible," with buses organized to shuttle travelers from a hotel to Kahului Airport in trips that started Wednesday afternoon, according to another county post.

"Due to limited resources in this time of crisis, visitors with vehicles or any means of transportation are being asked to leave Lahaina and Maui as soon as possible," it said.

But many travelers were stranded at the Kahului Airport late Wednesday, due to canceled and delayed flights, with some seen by an AFP journalist left sleeping on the floor.

About two dozen flights going in or out of the airport on Thursday were canceled or delayed, according to website FlightAware.

The US military deployed three helicopters to help fight the fires, and others to assist search and rescue operations, the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement.

Military helicopters aiding firefighting efforts dropped about 150,000 gallons (570,000 liters) of water in Maui County on Wednesday, US Army Major General Kenneth Hara, the state adjutant general, told a news conference, according to CNN.

"The primary focus is to save lives, and then to prevent human suffering, and then to mitigate great property loss," Hara told reporters.

Authorities were working to restore cellular communications across the island and distribute water, he added.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved a state request for federal funding to fight the wildfires, the state emergency management agency said.

The FEMA aid allows for three-quarters of eligible firefighting costs to be reimbursed by the federal government, it said.

- 'Something out of a movie' -

Lahaina resident Claire Kent said Wednesday that she had seen her neighborhood razed less than an hour after she fled.

"The flames had moved all the way down to the end of the neighborhood," she told CNN.

"We were pulling out... onto the highway, you look back and there's cars with flames on both sides of the road, people stuck in traffic trying to get out," Kent said, describing the dangerous scene as "something out of a horror movie.

"I know for a fact people didn't get out," she said, adding that homeless people and those without access to vehicles seemed to have been trapped.

A first responder who was in the town after the blaze swept through described a scene of devastation.

"As you drive down the road... either way you look, it's honestly just rubble," the person told AFP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

"With how much charred materials there were... I don't think much is alive in there."