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Once a lush green resort town on an island in the middle of the Pacific, Lahaina has now been reduced to ash and rubble.
At least 93 people have died since the fast-moving blaze engulfed the north-west coast of the Hawaiian island of Maui on Tuesday, levelling the historic town and obliterating nearly everything in its path.
Video footage comparing what it looked like in May shows the extent of the devastation.
Boats docked in the harbour have sunk to the bottom while trees and grass turned different shades of charred black.
Days after the inferno, crews of firefighters were still battling flare-ups, and cadaver dogs were sifting through the ruins in search of victims.
Survivors and officials are grappling with the scale of the disaster.
"We are still in the throes of the acute phase of this recovery, meaning that we're still recovering the tragic loss of life," Hawaii Governor Josh Green said.
"It's a war zone, but the help is incredible."
Officials have secured 1,000 hotel rooms for people who lost their homes and are arranging for rental properties to serve as housing at no cost to families, Mr Green added.
More than 1,400 people had been taken in at emergency shelters.
People sifted through a crowd-sourced online database listing thousands of names of individuals who had been found as well as of those who remained unaccounted-for.
Family and friends mobilised on social media, sharing information about their missing loved ones and asking for help in locating them.
"People are being found alive and severely disoriented due to what they have gone through," Heather Baylosis wrote in a Saturday Instagram post.
"We are holding out hope!"
Hundreds of people were still missing, though a precise count was not clear.
Officials began allowing residents back into west Maui on Friday, although the fire zone in Lahaina remained barricaded.
The governor said the area is a hazardous site due to dangerous fumes from the smouldering ruins.
The cost to rebuild Lahaina was estimated at $US5.5 billion ($8.5 billion), according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), with more than 2,200 structures damaged or destroyed and more than 2,100 acres (850 hectares) burned.
FEMA said more than 250 staff have been deployed including 45 disaster survivor assistance specialists, who are visiting shelters in Maui to help people register for aid.
ABC/Reuters