Parts of the Hawaiian Island of Maui remain a disaster zone as the search for human remains continues.
Almost 50,000 residents and tourists have been flown off the island since the deadliest US fire in a century razed more than 2000 buildings and killed at least 93 people.
Authorities are warning it could take weeks to search the debris with cadaver dogs.
New Zealander Campbell Farrell has called Maui home for 32 years. He runs ocean conservation not for profit group Love The Sea and is helping in the relief effort.
He told Checkpoint the events still do not feel real.
"People are starting to realise the impact of what's happened and some family and friends are starting to realise in particular those people who didn't make it through the fires - so there's emotion starting to surface.
"There's desperation, in that this temporary situation is actually going to be a much much longer, drawn out reality - I think there's a lot of shock setting in."
Since the fires, Farrell said a crew of Love the Sea volunteers had been collecting donated items from communities on the north side of Maui, and delivering them by sea to those who have had to leave their homes and are still on the west of the island.
"The day before, they allowed people into the areas, supposedly residents returning with ID, but no IDs were checked - no particular reason for visiting was really managed, people drove into the area and just wandered around through the rubble. And it caused a lot of concern and frustrations for the firefighters and other responders who are out there trying to find remains and work through the area. They just simply can't do their job if they're being disturbed.
"So it created another lockdown, which is what forced us back to doing ocean deliveries yesterday.
"Initially it was just first comfort items, bedding, clothing and toiletries and things like that ... but once people got their comfort sorted out it's now gone into more fuels, like cooking oils, butane, propane, gasoline, generators, and sanitary personal items that are in constant use."
Much of the town of Lahaina, on the western side of Maui was burned to the ground. Photo: AFP / Patrick T. Fallon
On the night the fires spread, does he think better alarms to alert the communities to the danger would have helped?
"I think it would have made a reasonable difference had their been adequate warning in a timely manner."
But, he says there is still a lot that is not known about how the disaster and response unfolded.
"Who knows why those sirens weren't turned on ... I heard that communications towers were wiped out fairly quickly - perhaps that was one of the first things that got taken down by the fires.
"It was an extreme situation, there were very strong winds ... once a certain amount of fire was burning the fireballs were just sucking in more air and accelerating the winds and creating an acceleration effect. And that's what swept through the town and ... people were not able to escape. We heard firemen got caught in the blaze - I'm not sure if there were lives lost in the fire department, but I believe they lost a truck.
"The blaze was moving very quickly through the town."
People's efforts to escape on the road descended into mayhem in some places, resulting in people abandoning their vehicles to try to get away on foot.
"There were many cars abandoned, mainly because there was just huge traffic jams - it's really one road in, one road out once you get out of the central township, and it was bottlenecked badly.
"We heard of bigger trucks ramming and pulling radical manoeuvres to make their own way out, which probably caused a lot of panic, and people would have realised quickly 'If I sit in my car and wait to drive out it's not going to happen'."
Searchers are now working through the destroyed town's burned buildings and the vehicles, searching for bodies: "I believe it's a slow delicate process, moving through the ashes," Farrell said.
Lahaina residents are still searching for loved ones and pets missing since the night of the fire Photo: AFP
