According to media reports, the Maui fires in August 2023 were the deadliest in the U.S. in more than 100 years. 

On August 8, 2023, strong winds knocked down numerous utility poles.  Security video appears to show that a tree falling on a power line on August 7 caused at least one of the fires.

Conspiracy theorists have alleged that the fires were started by a space-based laser, but viral images have been debunked, as this video shows.

Conspiracy theorists have noted that blue cars and umbrellas did not burn in the fires, which they claim is evidence in support of their laser theory.  Videos such as this one show that blue umbrellas do not burn when exposed to a laser.

One of the major problems with this theory is that we do not know how many blue objects that did burn in the Maui fires.  In other words, conspiracy theorists are cherry picking some blue objects that didn’t burn while ignoring that other blue objects probably did burn.

Another problem is that space-based lasers require significant amounts of energy.  That said, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was reportedly doing topographical mapping with lasers in the Hawaiian Islands through June 2023, as this video reveals.

Moreover, months before the fires, Chinese satellite lasers were recorded over Hawaii, ostensibly to measure pollutants or for topographical mapping, as this video shows.

To recap, the Maui fires were most likely caused by downed power lines, not by lasers.