Photos: 150-year-old tree from India among historic landmarks scorched in Hawaii's deadliest forest fire

For generations, the banyan tree along Lahaina town's historic Front Street served as a gathering place, its leafy branches unfurling majestically to give shade from the Hawaiian sun. By most accounts, the sprawling tree was the heart of the oceanside community — towering more than 60ft and anchored by multiple trunks that span nearly an acre.

Like the town itself, its very survival is now in question, its limbs scorched by a devastating fire that has wiped away generations of history.

For 150 years, the colossal tree shaded community events, including art fairs. It shaded townsfolk and tourists alike from the Hawaiian sun, befitting for a place once called “Lele,” the Hawaiian word for “relentless sun.”

Ring by ring, the tree has captured history.

The tree was just an 8-foot (2-meter) sapling when it was planted in 1873, a gift shipped from India to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Protestant mission in Lahaina. It was planted a quarter century before the Hawaiian Islands became a US territory and seven decades after King Kamehameha declared Lahaina the capital of his kingdom.

“There is nothing that has made me cry more today than the thought of the Banyan Tree in my hometown of Lahaina,” wrote a poster identifying herself as HawaiiDelilah on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“We will rebuild," her post said. "And the natural beauty of Maui will be forever.”

Tiffany Kidder Winn, who surveyed the damage in Lahaina on Wednesday, walked by the tree and saw hope in its charred branches. Maybe it will survive, she thought.

“It’s burned, but I looked at the trunk and the roots and I think it’s going to make it,” she said. “It was kind of this diamond in the rough of hope.”

It’s unclear what sparked the fire, which quickly raced toward town on Tuesday evening. The flames were fanned by brisk winds and fueled by dry vegetation in nearby hills. When the ferocious blaze swept into the historic town, many of the wooden buildings didn’t stand a chance and were quickly turned into heaps of ashes.

“There’s just so much meaning attached to it and there’s so many experiences that everyone has. It's in the heart of a historic town," said John Sandbach, who has lived on Maui for nearly two decades.