Was Oprah's Home Spared From Maui Wildfires? What We Know

Since a number of large wildfires spread across the Hawaiian island of Maui, leaving death and destruction in their wake, questions have been raised about how Oprah Winfrey's getaway ranch on the island had been spared from the infernos.

The famed presenter has owned a property on the island since 2003, and was spotted last week bringing supplies to a shelter for victims of the fires. But conspiracy theories have circulated online that hers was among the homes of the rich and wealthy to be conspicuously spared from the blazes.

Newsweek approached a representative for Winfrey via email for comment on Monday.

Large bush fires on Maui have caused power outages, mass evacuations and extensive destruction to the historic resort town of Lahaina. The fires broke out early last week and spread rapidly on hurricane-driven winds from a passing storm.

County of Maui officials put the death toll of the fires at 96 on Sunday evening, with more than 1,000 people still unaccounted for. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said he was certain that the number of deaths would rise in the coming days.

In its latest update, county officials said that the fire around Lahaina—which spanned an estimated 2,170 acres—was 85 percent under control, with multiple fire crews monitoring it. Another fire was now entirely contained, while another was 60 percent contained due to hot spots in hard-to-reach areas.

On Sunday, in a tweet that has since been viewed more than 1 million times, one user posted aerial footage of the devastation in Lahaina, which showed that some buildings had survived the fire relatively unscathed, while most others immediately adjacent had been burned to the ground. "It's almost like buildings have been specifically targeted with pinpoint accuracy..." they wrote.

"Was Oprah and Larry Ellison's homes devastated?" another X, formerly Twitter, user responded.

"The fires on the Hawaiian island of Maui were not made by three people with gasoline cans. None of the Elite's multi million dollar homes were touched," one person claimed. "For example, Jeff Bezos house wasn't touched. Oprah's house wasn't touched and on and on."

They added: "It was a[n] intentional attack by the Shadow Government."

None of the X users presented any evidence to support their claims.

Meanwhile, CLG News claimed, without any evidence, that the fires had been intentionally started "so that BlackRock can swoop in and buy the most expensive real estate in the world for pennies on the dollar while forcing us to live in 15-minute cities."

CLG News is given a low credibility rating by the Mediarating/factcheck website, which analyzes the veracity of output by media organizations around the world.

Officials are yet to determine the cause of the fires, but pointed to a National Weather Service prediction that a mix of dry conditions and strong winds had created perfect conditions for them to spread.

Experts have said that Hawaii, like the Southwest, has been experiencing unusually hot, dry conditions caused by climate change's effects on atmospheric weather patterns. The fires on Maui were able to spread on winds of up to 81 miles an hour coming from Hurricane Dora that was passing nearby.

While Winfrey's exact address on the island is unknown, her home is situated in a rural area near the Kula Forest Reserve to the southwest of the island—an hour's drive from Lahaina and a region that was spared from the three large infernos that ripped across parts of the island last week.

On Friday, the media mogul was spotted delivering supplies including cots, pillows and toiletries to a shelter in Wailuku.

Kāko'o Haleakalā, a local volunteering organization, posted a video of Winfrey personally giving the supplies out to victims of the fires on Instagram, adding in the caption: "She even spent some time with the people there. It was very much appreciated."

A spokesperson for the celebrity told CNN: "Oprah has been to several local shelters to ask first-hand what was most needed. She then went to Walmart and Costco to shop for the items and brought them back. It is heart-breaking devastation."

They added that Winfrey intended to give further support to the recovery effort "as it becomes clear which funds can be the most helpful for the short-term and long-term rebuilding."

CNN reported that Winfrey had previously opened a private road to her property to help those escaping a previous brush fire in 2019.