Hawaii woman shocked as tourists are back to swimming at Maui's beaches just days after wildfire victims' bodies were pulled from the water

• A Maui resident told the BBC tourists are swimming where "people died" during the wildfires.
• "That says a lot about where their heart and mind is through all of this," the woman added.

A Hawaiian resident was left shocked after she said some Maui tourists were back to swimming and vacationing on the wildfire-ravaged island days after victims' bodies were pulled from the water.

"The same waters that our people just died in three days ago are the same waters the very next day these visitors, tourists were swimming in," an unnamed Maui woman told the BBC in a report published on Sunday.

The woman added, "And that says a lot about where their heart and mind is through all of this and where our heart and mind is."

"You don't see our people swimming, snorkeling, surfing. Nobody is having fun in tragedy and continuing their lives like nothing has happened," she said. "There is two Hawaiis right now — there is the Hawaii we're living in and the Hawaii they're living in, they're visiting in."

Wildfires erupted in Maui last week, completely devastating parts of the island, including the historic town of Lahaina, and killing at least 96 people.

As the ferocious fires raged, some Maui residents were forced to jump into the ocean to escape the flames.

More than a dozen people were successfully rescued, but one survivor from hard-hit Lahaina told Hawaii News Now that bodies were found in the waters in a horrific scene after the fires essentially leveled much of the town.

In the aftermath of what has become one of the deadliest wildfire disasters in US history, Hawaii officials and Hawaiian-born celebrities like Jason Momoa and Auli'i Cravalho have urged tourists to stay away.

"Maui is not the place to have your vacation right now," Momoa wrote in an Instagram post, while Cravalho wrote in another: "DO NOT TRAVEL TO HAWAIʻI UNLESS YOU ARE RENDERING AID."

The Hawaii Tourism Authority has said that vacationers have "largely heeded the call to leave" Maui.