The dying toll from the fires that overtook Maui was already rising considerably on Thursday as questions mounted over whether or not officers had acted with sufficient urgency to evacuate the vacationer haven of Lahaina, the place many individuals described harrowing escapes.

When the comb fireplace was first noticed early on Tuesday, Maui County officers ordered evacuations in an space on the japanese fringe of city close to a college. But inside a couple of hours, officers introduced on Facebook and on the county web site that the blaze had been “100% contained.” And for the subsequent few hours, whereas the county Emergency Management Agency warned individuals to keep away from a number of blocked roads, there seem to have been no additional evacuation orders.

Only as the fireplace unfold quickly into Lahaina, rekindled by highly effective winds, did officers order extra evacuations, in keeping with statements posted on the county’s web site and social media accounts. But by then, within the afternoon, some individuals have been already dodging flames and thick smoke as they made last-minute efforts to succeed in security, and lots of residents stated they by no means acquired any alerts.

At a news convention on Thursday night time, the fireplace chief, Bradford Ventura, stated the blaze had moved so rapidly that it was “nearly impossible” for emergency administration officers to ship out evacuation orders in time.

Asked if he was warned in regards to the fireplace, one Lahaina resident, Mark Stefl, was blunt. “Oh, hell no,” stated Mr. Stefl, who stated he fled along with his spouse after they noticed flames about 500 yards from their home. He stated the fireplace rapidly closed in on them as they drove by way of thick black smoke — and eventually to security. “Nobody saw this coming,” he stated.

Claire Kent, who works in Lahaina taking vacationers out on a ship off the coast, stated she started to panic round 3:30 p.m. when she noticed a billowing cloud of black smoke and heard an explosion. A neighbor instructed her three close by fuel stations have been on fireplace and urged her to pack a bag to flee. As she and a number of other associates tried to drive out of city, she stated, she noticed individuals making an attempt to flee on foot, some holding youngsters.

Even then, stated Ms. Kent, she had nonetheless not been notified of any must evacuate — save for a shirtless man on a bicycle alongside the street who was screaming: “You have to get out!”

“That was the closest thing to a warning,” stated Ms. Kent, 26, who ultimately made it to the security of a buddy’s house about 25 miles away. “There weren’t police officers with megaphones telling people you need to evacuate.”

But some residents stated that they had acquired an emergency evacuation alert, elevating questions on why the alerts didn’t attain extra individuals in hurt’s means.

Carl Cudworth, 63, evacuated his house in Lahaina along with his spouse, Laurie Prozezinski, 52, and the remainder of their household after Mr. Cudworth acquired an pressing notification on his cellphone round 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

The alert, which confirmed up in purple textual content on a white background, blared loudly thrice, not like every other noise Mr. Cudworth had heard from his telephone earlier than. “Kind of like a fire engine,” he stated. After he opened his telephone to learn the message, it disappeared, he stated, but it surely was sufficient to get them to flee the city.

Maui’s mayor, Richard T. Bissen Jr., stated evacuation orders had been issued for “affected areas,” together with Lahaina however didn’t share extra particulars about why different individuals didn’t get them. And he acknowledged that some individuals — significantly individuals in lodges, he stated — have been instructed to shelter in place to keep away from clogging up the roads. A discover on the county’s web site at 4:45 p.m. stated that “people on the west side” of Maui — the place Lahaina is — “are advised to shelter in place unless evacuations are ordered.”

Another resident, Ernesto Perez, 42, stated that with a critical brush fireplace reported, he had saved an ear out on Tuesday in case the island’s emergency sirens blared. They by no means did, however earlier than he knew it, a strong gust of wind shrouded his house constructing with thick smoke round 5 p.m.

Mr. Perez gathered his mom and 4 daughters they usually piled into his pickup truck. Behind them, he stated, the constructing was ablaze. Mr. Perez drove away as quick as he may, maneuvering his means round blocked roads.

“It was basically raining fire,” Mr. Perez stated. “All over.”

Robbie Wares, who has lived in Lahaina for many years, stated the one warning she bought was from somebody — it was not clear who it was — shouting out of a transferring car that handed by her home. She fled as she noticed the skies darkening and filling with smoke.

“They didn’t get out of the car,” she stated of whoever was giving the warnings. “If I hadn’t been home, I wouldn’t have heard.”

Jill Cowan, Gaya Gupta and Michael Levenson contributed reporting.