Saying, quote the fires began on tuesday and are now about 80 contained. The blazes spread quickly, fuelled by strong winds generated by a hurricane over the pacific ocean. Thousands are still in emergency shelters. Visitors are being evacuated from the island. These are the latest pictures we Have Smouldering Ruins and total devastation. The worst destruction has been on the island of maui, where some beachfront areas have been completely levelled. Us President Joe Biden has now declared the wildfires a major disaster. This triggers the release of federal funds to help Recovery Efforts. He spoke earlier. We have just approved a major disaster declaration for hawaii, which will get aid into the hands of people who desperately need the help now. Theyve lost, anyone who has lost a loved one, whose home has been damaged or destroyed, is going to get help immediately. And ive directed that we send support to these brave firefighters and First Responders and Emergency Personnel working around the clock there, risking their lives. Lets take a look at what else is being done to help the situation in hawaii. The federal Emergency ManagementAgency AdministratorDeanne Criswell will travel to the state to meet with officials. Earlier, fema announced that federal Disaster Assistance has been made available to supplement local Recovery Efforts. California is sending Search And Rescue teams to help Recovery Efforts thats according to the states governor, gavin newsom. California officials have a lot of experience in dealing with such blazes, including the 2018 camp fire that killed 85 people in 2018. And the main airport in maui has turned into an unofficial emergency shelter. An estimated 11,000 people are being flown out to other Hawaiian Islands or the us mainland. As you can see, that has led to scenes like this. The crowds have been calm but anxious as people try to fly to safer places. This is all happening as the extent of the devastation becomes clearer, as our North America correspondent nomia iqbal reports. Much of the Hawaiian Island of maui is now scorched earth. A pilot can hardly believe what hes seeing. Oh, my gosh look at the harbour this looks like baghdad or something. The Historic Town of lahaina barely exists anymore. Since the fire began on tuesday, it has ripped through, fuelled by Hurricane Force winds, leaving burnt out cars on once busy streets and instead of historic buildings, there are Smoking Piles of rubble. Everybody still out here, its time to go for anyone still in the town, the message is clear get out. If anybody� s still here, the fire is On Front Street and it is time to go this Satellite Image from last month and yesterday lays bare the destruction. Its something youd see in a war zone. I was the last one off the dock when the firestorm came through the banyan trees and took everything with it. And ijust ran out to the beach and i ran south and ijust helped everybody i could along the way. Still got dead bodies in the water, floating, and on the sea wall. Theyve been sitting there since last night. Weve been pulling people out since last night, trying to save peoples lives, and i feel like were not getting the help we need. At 3am, we got a call, get. Out that was our neighbour the us military has now mobilised as it tries desperately to suppress the fires over the island. A state nicknamed � the paradise of the pacific� is now paradise lost. Nomia iqbal, bbc news. The Us Coast Guard has been working to rescue people off the coast of the town of lahaina after manyjumped into the water to escape the burning flames. They say a total of 17 people have been saved from the water. Another a0 survivors have been found on shore and brought to safety by boat crews. The coast guard says Search Efforts have covered 689 square nautical miles, which isjust over 2000 square kilometres. Now, the weather has been very dry in hawaii recently with isolated fires breaking out. However, as we mentioned earlier, a seemingly benign hurricane in the Eastern Pacific has escalated the situation. Ben rich from bbc weather explains. The weather on its own rarely causes wildfires but it can bring conditions that make them more likely and help to fan the flames which is exactly what happened in hawaii. Its been very, very dry here of late and then passing to the south, weve had this major hurricane, hurricane dora. The centre of the storm has stayed well away from hawaii but it has been squashing up against this big area of High Pressure and that squeezed between the two has generated some very strong winds, gusting up to 67 mph. But without storm now drifting away westwards, the winds are easing. It is going to stay quite breezy over the next few days but not windy as it has been. However, apart from just the odd passing shower, it is going to remain largely dry. Earlier, i spoke to malika dudley, a meteorologist on maui island, who herself had to evacuate. Malika, good to see you and thanks forjoining us during what must be a really difficult time. To begin with, just describe what youve been experiencing these past few days. Experiencing these past few da 5. ,. , days. Unfortunately, we experienced days. Unfortunately, we experienced the days. Unfortunately, we experienced the very. Days. Unfortunately, we experienced the very beginning of this crazy catastrophe that happened. The first fire that started on maui was up on the slopes of the upcountry area, alinda and cooler, the fire was spreading quickly because of our really high winds and started to drop down towards my neighbourhood. Unbeknownst to me, i woke up at 1pm and i smeltfire me, i woke up at 1pm and i smelt fire but it smelled on it is not unusual for us to smell fire, especially because we were expecting that if there was some kind of a spark to start a fire it would start very quickly and that was already something that we had alerted the public about, that Red Flag Warning was posted for more rapid fire spread because of low humidity and dry brush and really high winds that we were expecting, so ijust went back to sleep and at 3pm i got a call, our neighbour said it out of your house we looked out of your house we looked out the window and the sky was red so it was quite alarming, kind of panic, grabbed the kids and our papers and ran out of their, past the firefighters on their, past the firefighters on the way out. They were just kind of in a wait and see, it was too dangerous for them to get into those remote areas to start fighting the fire with the wind so high and they could not do air drops, water because first of all, it was pitch black dark and even in daylight it was not something that they could do because it was too dangerous to even fly, so we got out of there and we got to somewhere safe and evacuated here to a friends house in a safe place. It here to a friends house in a safe place safe place. It sounds absolutely safe place. It sounds absolutely terrifying | safe place. It sounds. Absolutely terrifying and safe place. It sounds absolutely terrifying and just tell us more about where other people are going to the situation in terms of resources, capacity shelters, other enough resources getting in . ,. ,. ,. , in . The shelters are open and available to in . The shelters are open and available to the in . The shelters are open and available to the public in . The shelters are open and available to the public and available to the public and they have been in use. There are several shelters around the island and they even bused out people from the lahaina area, both to the airport to get the visitors off the island but also to the shelter, if you are also to the shelter, if you are a local or staying, so that you could get what you need, the resources that you need. At the shelter, there are tons of donations being dropped off. At this point, we are actually asking people to stop dropping off donations because we are a bit overwhelmed with the amount of physical donations which are being dropped off. To the War Memorial Centre in particular, its in the main town. If you its in the main town. If you want to help, to help with the resources that we do need, monetary donations is what we need. There are reputable places that you can donate to. I know people are reaching to people around the globe, the one Community Foundation is one, maui united way and the Maui Food Bank of three great places to be able to donate to online fiscally, just monetary donations, thats what we need. Maui rapid response. Org is a place you can go if you want to donate services, time, if you own a Construction Company or things like that. Things like that. And from eo le things like that. And from peeple youve things like that. And from people youve been things like that. And from i people youve been speaking things like that. And from people youve been speaking to, people youve been speaking to, people in your community of people in your community of people who had to then go shelters, for example, have they been speaking to you about what theyve lost . Weve heard stories of people at times even having to run into the ocean, people have lost their homes and so much more. People have lost their homes and so much more. Oh, for sure, and so much more. Oh, for sure, and the more and so much more. Oh, for sure, and the more people and so much more. Oh, for sure, and the more people come and so much more. Oh, for sure, and the more people come out i and the more people come out of the area, the more stories are being told. Ive heard stories of husband to get his family out of the house and is not being able to and running out of there and making it out but with severe burns and ive heard stories of people having second, running for their lives, jumping over the seawall into water and being in the water, stranded for seven hours, feeling like about getting and approaching fire in order to warm up and stay alive. Meanwhile, watching people that they know literally dying next to them. Devastating testimony. Dying next to them. Devastating testimony, and dying next to them. Devastating testimony, and i dying next to them. Devastating testimony, and i just dying next to them. Devastating testimony, and i just wonder testimony, and ijust wonder yourself being a by trade, is this something that you have been speaking about with other meteorologists, specialised in the field, about the prospect of Something Like this happening in hawaii and are you also wrapping your head around the idea of this being a risk Going Forward . We the idea of this being a risk Going Forward . Going forward . We never exnected Going Forward . We never expected this Going Forward . We never expected this to Going Forward . We never expected this to happen. J Going Forward . We never expected this to happen. You know, we did warn people with the Red Flag Warning, which i explained earlier. We were expecting gusts up to 60 mph. What we saw was 80 mph. Thats Hurricane Force winds, and that knocks people down. That knocked down power poles. And from witnesses, weve heard that when power poles went down, thats where sparks started and with really high Hurricane Force just moving through, thats where the fire spread so quickly gusts moving through. It was the perfect storm. Lahaina has been devastated before in a similar fashion but never to this extent of course, but with a hurricane that is not even making landfall, just moving by the island and a really tight Pressure Gradient and the combination of how dry it is in many parts of maui but particularly through the areas where the fires were sparked so its definitely a concern but we couldnt have predicted just how bad this was. We couldnt have predicted ust how bad this wasi how bad this was. Malika dudley. How bad this was. Malika dudley, thank how bad this was. Malika dudley, thank you how bad this was. Malika dudley, thank you so how bad this was. Malika l dudley, thank you so much how bad this was. Malika dudley, thank you so much for being with us and to take care. Thank you. And were expecting a Press Conference from local officials in hawaii soon. The bbc will be monitoring that event. If youd like updates, you can go to our live page at bbcnews. Com. Five americans jailed for years in iran have been moved from prison to house arrest, as part of a deal struck between tehran and washington. The five, who also have iranian passports, have been held in tehran� s evin prison on charges of spying for the us, but washington regards them as wrongfully detained. In a Press Conference a few hours ago, us Secretary Of StateAntony Blinken struck a cautiously optimistic note, but he refused to get into the specifics of the deal. This is a positive step but i dont want to get ahead of this conclusion because theres more work to be done to actually them home. My belief is that this is the beginning of the end of their nightmare. And the nightmare that their families have experienced. In any event, in any respect, iran will not be receiving any sanctions relief and in any instance where we would engage in self efforts to bring americans home from iran, their own funds would be used and transferred to restricted accounts such that the monies can only be used for humanitarian purposes which as you know is permitted under sanctions. Earlier, the bbc� s chief International Correspondent lyse doucet spoke to my colleague caitriona perry. It has not been confirmed and official statements by the United States but sources told us that after two years of negotiations, to third parties, The Americans and iranian � s have reached a deal. Five Iranian Americans exchanged for five iranians imprisoned on charges of evading sanctions in the United States and, in addition, access to 6 billion in iranian assets in south korea which we believe transferred to count in qatar to be used for humanitarian purposes so five 45 as well as frozen iranian assets. It will take a long time to implement it but the first step was taken with the transfer of five Iranian Americans from evin prison to house arrest, we believe in the iranian] run, under guard, untilthat believe in the iranian] run, under guard, until that money goes to south korea and is posited in an account in the central bank of qatar. Some of the dta needs central bank of qatar. Some of the dta needs we central bank of qatar. Some of the Dta Needs We Are central bank of qatar. Some of the Dta Needs We Are aware i central bank of qatar. Some of| the Dta Needs We Are aware of, they have been a for years. Do we know why this deal is now taking place . We know why this deal is now taking place . Some would say, wh has taking place . Some would say, why has it taking place . Some would say, why has it taken taking place . Some would say, why has it taken so taking place . Some would say, why has it taken so long . Taking place . Some would say, why has it taken so long . Take | why has it taken so long . Take the case of siamak namazi, detained for nearly seven years. He went on a Business Trip to iran, was accused of having a relationship with a hostile country, the United States. When his father went to the next year to try to get out of prison, he too was detained. A very elderly man. He was only released last year. That is one of the family waiting, hoping against hope that their loved ones will soon come home. They been expecting this to happen for some time, the deal was clinched almost this year and fell apart. 0ne clinched almost this year and fell apart. One of the prisoners, siamak namazi, did an extraordinary interview from prison with cnn so it has taken a long time and because the iranian � s and The Americans dont have automatic relations. They needed third parties. Imilli they needed third parties. Will this be seen they needed third parties. Will this be seen as they needed third parties. Will this be seen as a diplomatic success for the biden administration. , � administration. Resident biden has made the administration. Resident biden has made the bringing administration. Resident biden has made the bringing home. Administration. Resident biden| has made the bringing home of americans overseas incarcerated a key policy. They will say that oil revenues from south korea have been frozen in south korea have been frozen in south korea but already the blistering attacks are coming in. Iranian activists in exile. It is going to be a rough ride in many ways before The Americans can come home. Around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. Dont lets look at some other news now. Northern irelands police chief has said he is deeply sorry about two data breaches, revealing