3,152 Burned Vehicles Have Been Removed From Lahaina, But More Than 350 Remain

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers provided an update on debris removal, which also included 141 boats.

More than 350 burned vehicles are still spread throughout Lahaina more than a year after the Aug. 8, 2023 fire, but that’s a small fraction of the vehicles that were destroyed. So far, 3,152 vehicles have been removed from the burn zone, according to Lt.

Col. Collin Jones of the U.S.

Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps will collect the remaining cars over the next several months, Jones said at a recent community meeting. No other government agency is involved in the task, but insurance companies and private individuals have removed some vehicles.

“I would say that overall, we are on or ahead of schedule. We’ve been making good progress,” Corps debris mission manager Zack Moore said. The Corps is working with private contractors, many specializing in disaster and debris recovery, to remove vehicles.

It’s taken more than 6,000 hours to remove the vehicles so far; each one takes about two hours. The vehicles are taken from roads and private properties to a temporary staging site at Pioneer Mill in Lahaina. Twice a week, Maui County employees or contractors notify owners and their insurance companies that the vehicles were accounted for and collected as waste.

Once adjudicated, the vehicles are recycled as scrap metal, Moore said. The processing of the vehicles includes removing all hazards and fluids at the pickup location, Moore said. Then they are transported to the s.