"All hands on deck" it reads, with a special feature about the Banyan tree.

Image source, EPA

We are expecting an update from officials in just a few minutes.

Before it does, here's where things stand:

• The death toll following wildfires in Hawaii has risen to 55, and hundreds more have been reported missing

• The state governor says it will take many years to repair the damage caused by wildfires on the island of Maui
• Josh Green said more than 1,000 buildings had been destroyed in the historic tourist town of Lahaina

• Officials say downed communication lines are making it difficult to locate people
• On Thursday, President Joe Biden declared a "major disaster"
• He vowed to trigger the release of federal funds to help recovery efforts
• Also on Thursday, the Maui County government said 14,900 visitors left on flights departing Maui
• Any more visitors wanting to leave the island need to book a ticket with an airline
• Aerial photos show widespread devastation with thousands of Maui residents displaced

Image source, Getty Images

Fires are still burning and search and rescue teams are still operating, but residents in the worst-affected places will be able to return to their homes today, the state's governor says.

Governor Josh Green was speaking to a morning news show on Hawaii's KHON-TV.

“Lahaina is a devastated zone. They will see destruction like they’ve not ever seen in their lives,” warned the governor, who visited the town yesterday. “Be very safe, be very careful.”

Around 11,000 people are still without power, and the current death toll of 55 is expected to climb. The 55 confirmed deaths are of people found outside, and the search inside burned structures has yet to begin.

Gov Green also said there is likely to be a curfew announced in Lahaina for public safety.

Additionally, the government is working to obtain hotel rooms and temporary housing for displaced people.

“It’s going to be a long need,” he said. “There’s going to be several hundred families who are displaced.

"Then when you see the devastation up close, you’re going to see that it’s going to take several months to remove the debris. That means workforce people are going to need to be in the area, staying on Maui.”

The US National Guard - part of the reserves of the US army and air force - will send 133 personnel to help with firefighting and search and rescue, the Pentagon says.

The National Guard will also send several helicopters, including the heavy lifting two-rotor Chinooks.

Image source, Reuters

Social media is full of stories of Hawaiian communities coming together to provide donations for those impacted by the Maui fires.

We've seen posts of volunteers loading up cars, trucks and boats with donated clothes, food, toiletries and other essentials.

One volunteer, Rayne Gourley, posted on Instagram to say, external the general consensus was that donations outweighed the crew available to distribute them.

When she arrived with a group at a local drop-off point with a load of their own donations, they found just a small number of people managing the load.

So "the whole squad jumped in and powered it out," she wrote.

These stories appear to be indicative of a widespread community embrace of "aloha" - a Hawaiian spirit of kindness, generosity and love.

The destruction in and around one seaside town - Lahaina - has been immense.

Some residents and tourists had to run into the sea to escape the flames and local officials say it will take years for the area to recover.

These are the latest photos from Lahaina, which have just come into us from Reuters.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Survivors in the devastated town of Lahaina have told the BBC's US partner CBS there were no sirens to alert them as flames raced towards their homes.

A Hawaii Emergency Management Agency spokesperson told the AP agency, external the department’s records don’t show Maui’s warning sirens were triggered on Tuesday, when the fire began.

Instead, the county used emergency alerts sent to mobile phones, televisions and radio stations, Adam Weintraub said.

It’s not clear if those alerts were sent before most communication with areas of West Maui was cut off by fire outages.

The island's mayor Richard Bissen declined to comment on whether the warning systems functioned when questioned by NBC's Today show, external, but said the fast-moving flames created an "impossible situation" because "everything happened so quickly".

He said 2,100 people were in shelters by Tuesday night.

Read more about what residents and officials have said about the warnings here

Three wildfires on Maui were still burning. The most current data from authorities shows:

• Lahaina fire - 80% contained
• Pulehu/Kihei fire - 70% contained
• Upcountry fire - no estimate

Support has been sent over from the US mainland - including teams from California and Pennsylvania.

How long are they expected to burn?

It is difficult to predict how long the fires will burn, but the winds - which have been blowing at 60mph (100km/h) for the past few days - are expected to ease on Friday to about 6mph (9.7km/h).

Powerful winds from Hurricane Dora have been a major factor in helping spread the fires, so this comes as good news for firefighters working to contain them.

Image source, reut

Mayor of Maui County, Richard Bissen, says the current death toll "could go up" today as authorities start to search inside the wrecked buildings.

Speaking with NBC's Today Show, external this morning, Bissen said the current death toll of 55 people was based on victims who had been found outside.

He said authorities were now preparing to venture into some of the razed homes and businesses.

Maui authorities were awaiting help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which was authorised by President Biden yesterday.

FEMA is equipped with resources to safely search the burned buildings in "hazmat conditions", Bissen said.

One resident said it's just "ash and dust" in Lahaina after the deadly wildfires.

Another local was returning for the first time since evacuating and said nobody knows if their homes are still standing.

It's just after 05:30 local time in Hawaii, and more residents will be waking up to see what news the day will bring.

Max Matza
Reporting from Maui

At one of the shelters in Maui, I spoke to Les Munn, who, like so many others here has a harrowing tale of survival.

He escaped his Lahaina home in the dark haze of the wildfires, guided only by the flashing blue light of a police car.

"Smoke and amber started to fly and the fire just engulfed the entire... everywhere," he tells me, adding that "they were landing on everything and there is just nowhere to go".

"It just went black and the only thing I could see was blue lights of the police unit, so that was the beacon I used to get to safety."

Munn says he hasn't seen his neighbours in the evacuation centre.

"That's kept me tense, kept me stressed these past few days," he says.

"I dont know if they survived."

One of Hawaii's most successful actors, Jason Momoa, has expressed his heartbreak over the destruction on the island of Maui.

Writing on the Instagram page of his production company, external, the Game of Thrones and Aquaman star says he's "devastated and heartbroken for our friends and ohana (family) on Maui".

"The thing that makes Maui No Ka ʻOi (the best) is our Aloha (compassion, peace, love)," he writes, "and it’s in that same spirit of aloha that our kūpuna (ancestors) instilled in us that we malama (protect) each other."

His post includes a video of the devastation, and resources for his audience to lend their support.

Among those who've commented on Momoa's post are fellow Hollywood actor Jeremy Renner, who expresses his sorrow for the "magical community" he has previously called home. "This just kills me," he writes.

Image source, Reuters

This striking picture was taken far across the water from Lahaina on Wednesday.

The image, just provided to us by Reuters news agency, gives a sense of the height of the wildfire that engulfed the town.

Image source, Reuters

"Starting from one end to the other, it's absolutely gone," is the description of Lahaina we've been given by a man who lives just outside the town on Maui.

Emerson Timmins says the historic town went from a thriving "tropical paradise" one day to a "war zone" the next.

The community doesn't yet know the full scale of the damage, with thousands of people having lost livelihoods and homes, Timmins tells the BBC's Newshour programme.

The disaster is going to have a “ripple effect throughout the entire community” he says, and not just financially - at least 55 people have died, and hundreds are still missing.

Timmins adds he hopes some of those fled north, where electricity and communications are still down.

We've put together some before and after images to show the widespread destruction in Lahaina.

A 120-year-old inn has been reduced to ashes, alongside most homes and businesses on the town's seafront.

Image source, .

Image source, .

Image source, .

Pope Francis has expressed sympathies over the loss of life and destruction caused by the wildfires in Hawaii.

He is "deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and the destruction" caused by the wildfires, a statement published by the Vatican says.

The Pope also expressed his "solidarity with all those suffering from this tragedy, especially those whose loved ones have died or are missing".

The statement adds: “His holiness also offers the assurance of prayers for the dead, injured and displaced, as well as for the first responders and emergency personnel."

We've just had an update from the Maui County government, which says firefighters are continuing to extinguish flare-ups and contain blazes across the island.

Officials also say:

• On Thursday, 14,900 visitors left on flights departing Maui
• Power has been restored to all water pumping stations in Upcountry Maui
• Six emergency shelters remain open across parts of the island
• Visitors wanting to leave Maui are asked to book a flight with an airline
• A search and rescue team arrived on Thursday night with two cadaver sniffer dogs

Horrifying images continue to pour in from Hawaii, where the historic capital of Lahaina has been devastated by the fires.

Gutted buildings, burnt out boats and blackened earth make for a bleak scene on the island of Maui.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA

Record temperatures and smoke-filled skies have shown that the threat of wildfires can impact millions of people, far away from the fires themselves.

And data shows that the number of size of wildfires has increased dramatically in the last two decades.

You can watch the BBC's Carl Nasman delve into the numbers below:

Let's bring you some reaction from some people affected by the destructive wildfires in Maui.

Julie Lundy is a resident of Lahaina and needed to be evacuated from the now-devastated town on Tuesday, returning to find her home had been destroyed in a blaze.

"We haven't really known anything the last couple of days because there isn't much information coming through," she tells BBC Radio's World at One programme.

"We have had no cell service, no Wi-Fi. We are getting bits from car radios. But, nobody really knows until they can make it in here if their house is still standing or not."

Keith Hunter, who has lived on the island for two decades, says many people have lost everything and it will take years to recover.

"It just breaks my heart that all the history is dust. Ash and dust."

Image source, Reuters