Celebrity homes were not selectively 'spared' from Maui wildfires

August wildfires in Maui have killed at least 97 people, making them the deadliest U.S. wildfires in nearly a century. Dramatic photos show parts of the historic town of Lahaina completely destroyed by the fires.

A reader asked VERIFY if claims about homes belonging to wealthy celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, surviving the fires that destroyed a whole town are true. Posts on X, formerly Twitter, viewed millions of times claim that Oprah’s estate, the mansion belonging to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and the estate belonging to former President Barack Obama were “spared” by the flames.

THE QUESTION

Were celebrity homes selectively ‘spared’ from the Maui wildfires?

THE SOURCES

• County of Maui
• NASA’s Fire Information for Research Management System (FIRMS)
• Records from the Maui County Council
• Google Maps satellite and street imagery
• Maui-based realtors SaylesTeam
• Honolulu Fire Department
• News reports and photos of celebrity houses

THE ANSWER

No, celebrity homes were not selectively ‘spared’ from the Maui wildfires.

WHAT WE FOUND

The County of Maui says four main wildfires spread around the Hawaiian island beginning Aug. 8, 2023: the Lahaina fire, the Pulehu-Kihei fire, the Olinda fire and the Kula fire.

NASA’s Fire Information for Research Management System (FIRMS) maintains a map with the locations of these four fires. Three of them are located relatively near each other at the center of the island, while the fire that destroyed Lahaina is along the western coastline of Maui.

Homes belonging to Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos and former President Barack Obama are not in the areas impacted by the wildfires. Winfrey and Bezos have homes in Maui, while Obama has property in Oahu — a different island in Hawaii.

Here’s where each celebrity’s home is located compared to the fires.

Jeff Bezos

In 2021, news media, including Architectural Digest, a monthly magazine focused on coverage of homes and architecture, reported that Bezos bought a 14-acre compound on Maui’s La Perouse Bay for an estimated $78 million.

The estate is just south of the Wailea and Makena resort areas and is “buffered by hundreds of acres of long-dormant lava fields nearby,” writes Anthony Sayles, a Maui-based realtor, on his real estate company’s website. 

Google Maps satellite images of a home next to La Perouse Bay and lava fields that match the photos Sayles posted to his website indicate Bezos’ estate is likely located in this area of the island.

This property is about a dozen miles away from any of the wildfires, according to estimates measured on Google Maps. 

Oprah Winfrey

Maui County Council records from 2011 and 2020 indicate that Winfrey owns a home on Thompson Road in the Maui town of Kula. A company owned by Winfrey, O.W. Ranch, requested permits from the council to run the home as a vacation rental.

The property, located here, is several miles away from the closest fire in Kula, with several undamaged communities and countless homes between the fire and Winfrey’s estate.

The Kula and Olinda fires, the closest fires to Winfrey's property, have destroyed at least 19 homes and damaged many more according to the County of Maui.

Barack Obama

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, a local Hawaiian newspaper, and ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative news site, reported in 2020 that Obama was building a beachfront estate near the community of Waimanalo, which is not on Maui. Waimanalo is on the island of Oahu.

The home meant to go on the property is still under construction. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported on the progress of a part of the property’s construction in 2022.

Photos in ProPublica and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser show a short wall made of stones surrounding the beach and the water in front of the property. Within the wall is an ancient Hawaiian turtle pond, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser says.

VERIFY found an under construction Waimanalo Beach property that appears to have the same wall designating the turtle pond on Google Maps satellite images. 

During Obama’s presidency, the first family vacationed at a different property on the island of Oahu. That home is listed by Hawaii Luxury, a vacation rental company, and is marked on this map on the home’s rental page. That same property can be found on Google Maps.

The account that posted the viral posts about Bezos’ and Obama’s Hawaiian homes to X later pointed out that there were also brush fires in Oahu that did not impact Obama’s property. The Honolulu Fire Department reported Aug. 17 that it contained a brush fire near a historic location in the community of Wahiawa.

Wahiawa is near the center of Oahu, far from the coastlines of either property associated with the Obama family. The Honolulu Fire Department said it was able to contain the fire before it endangered any structures.