Report: Investors Trying to Buy Burned Land in Hawaii

Newsweek reported Monday that realtors and investors are actively contacting victims of the Hawaiian wildfires on the island of Maui to buy their land even as the search continues for hundreds of people still missing from the deadly inferno that destroyed the town of Lahaina.

“I am so frustrated with investors and realtors calling the families who lost their home, offering to buy their land,” a woman speaking in a video on Instagram account owned by the land and species preservation organization Kāko’o Haleakalā said Sunday. “How dare you do that to our community right now? If you are a victim and they are calling you, please get their name, get their business name, so we can put them on blast.”

County officials said there were at least 96 fatalities, and the fires burned more than 2,700 acres on the island, including 2,170 acres and destroying at least 2,200 structures in Lahaina alone, the report said.

“I am so frustrated, hearing since yesterday, multiple families that I know personally were reached out and offered money from investors and realtors,” the woman in the video said. “Shame on you. If you are a Maui realtor contributing to that, karma is going to come and get you.”

Hurricane-force winds exceeding 70 mph helped propel the Aug. 8 wildfires, which are now considered the deadliest in 100 years, according to The New York Times.

As the fire jumped out of its containment zone, firefighters saw their water supply dry up as the community’s water system collapsed under the stress of the battle.

“There was just no water in the hydrants,” Keahi Ho, one of the firefighters on duty in Lahaina told the Times.

Hawaii Democrat Gov. Josh Green issued a fifth emergency proclamation Sunday responding to the disaster.

“The fifth proclamation suspends additional laws to facilitate emergency response, recovery, and rebuilding. It confirms that healthcare facilities and professionals engaging in emergency response are immune from civil liability during the proclamation period, except for willful misconduct, gross negligence, or recklessness,” the governor’s office told Newsweek. “It also lifts the $10 million cap on expenditures from the Major Disaster Fund to respond to this emergency and discourages nonessential travel to West Maui to free up accommodations for displaced residents and emergency workers.”

The news outlet said it was not clear which firms or realtors were making the calls to the victims.