Maui wildfires: Police release 16 minutes of bodycam footage from the day the fire devastated Lahaina

Maui police have released harrowing bodycam footage showing officers leading people to safety after a wildfire raged through the town of Lahaina in August.

The video shows officers rescuing 15 people from a cafe, taking a man with severe burns to a nearby hospital and rescuing an elderly man from his home.

The fast-spreading wildfire on August 8 killed at least 99 people and burned more than 2,000 buildings.

The fire raged through the historic town of Lahaina, decimating the popular 18th-century tourist attraction.

The 16-minute video was released at a press conference in Wailuku and shows the bravery of officers as they evacuated the city.

The 16-minute video was released at a press conference in Wailuku and shows the bravery of officers as they evacuated the city

The rapidly spreading wildfire on August 8 killed at least 99 people and burned more than 2,000 buildings

In part of the video, officers can be seen banging on the doors of a property before going inside.

An officer can be heard saying to an elderly man inside: ‘Come on, there’s a fire.’ Is there anyone else here?’

The video then shows two police officers leading the man outside by their hands as the fire rages in the distance.

Another clip shows a thick, gray, smoky sky surrounding the area as a police officer tells a resident to leave the area while urging people to evacuate.

Officers can be seen in another dramatic clip Evacuation of 15 people from a cafe and supermarket on Front Street, a neighborhood that mostly burned in the fire.

As smoke rose in the sky around them, officers led 15 people out of the cafe, loaded the group into police SUVs and took them to the Lahaina Civic Center.

In another clip, an officer finds a man with severe burns at a mall and puts him in the back seat of his patrol car.

“I’ll just take you straight to the hospital. ‘That sounds good?’ The officer can be heard asking the man, who responds, “Yes.”

A video shows an officer attaching a tow strap to a metal gate blocking an escape route on a dirt road as residents cut the gate open with a saw to allow a line of cars to pass.

In part of the video, officers can be seen banging on the doors of a property before going inside

Officers led 15 people out of a cafe, seen here, as smoke billowed in the sky around them

The fire raged through the historic town of Lahaina, decimating the popular 18th-century tourist attraction

An aerial view shows destroyed homes and buildings burned to the ground around the harbor and Front Street in Lahaina

While the exact cause of the fires remains unknown, the fires were fueled by strong winds from passing Hurricane Dora.

Low humidity and a prolonged drought season in which trees dried out also contributed to the disaster, officials said.

The true cause of the fire is still being determined, but there is a possibility that it was started by downed power lines that ignited dry, invasive grasses.

An Associated Press investigation found the answer may lie in an overgrown ravine beneath Hawaiian Electric Co.

Many drivers who had tried to escape the flames were left trapped on Front Street, completely surrounded by black smoke and a wall of flames.

Low humidity and a prolonged drought season in which trees dried out also contributed to the disaster, officials said

An aerial photo taken on August 10 shows destroyed cars in Lahaina following wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii

This led to numerous people jumping into the water surrounding the city to escape the inferno.

In an earlier update from Gov. Josh Green, he confirmed that several children were among those killed – although an exact number of how many is not yet known.

Accordingly Hawaii News NowA family of four was found in a burned-out vehicle and the bodies of seven people were discovered in a single house.

The Maui fire is the worst natural disaster to hit Hawaii since a tsunami in 1960 that killed 61 people.

It is also the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history, with the Camp Fire in California being the second largest, killing 68 people.