Hawaiian Airlines Cargo is proud to help transport essential medical supplies to Maui and first responders. Photo credit: Hawaiian Airlines Cargo
The death toll has reached at least 96 with the search for the missing (said to be around 1,000) still underway.
Relief organisations are working round the clock to provide vital aid to communities in the devastated town of Lahaina.
Hawaiian Airlines Cargo reported it has set aside space in its aircraft to support essential cargo, including life-saving blood and medical supplies, medication, food, water, amenity kits and infrastructure equipment for telecoms repairs.
Donated and shipped soft goods and catering items including 300 bottles of Mananalu water, 550 sandwiches, 3,000 snack items, 1,600 amenity kits, mattress pads, lounging pillows and other supplies have also been transported to evacuees arriving at Kahului Airport.
Hawaiian has also donated seats to first responders, including City and County of Honolulu firefighters to help Maui stations battle the ongoing wildfires.
And it has issued a travel waiver to allow guests with travel to and from Maui scheduled through 31 August with flexibility to change or refund flights.
More than 5,700 guests have so far been transported out of Maui.
“This is an incredibly tragic and sad event, and our hearts go out to everyone impacted on Maui and especially those who have lost loved ones,” said Peter Ingram, president and CEO of Hawaiian Airlines. “Our teams across our operation are working tirelessly to help those affected, including our nearly 500 colleagues who call Maui home. We send our deepest condolences to those impacted by the fires and will continue to leverage every resource we have to support the Maui community."
The cause of the fire is not yet known with reports citing the dry, arid conditions being a contributory factor to fuelling the fires, while others speculate it could have started due to damaged electric equipment.