Lahaina, Hawaii - Dozens of people have been killed in a wildfire that has razed a Hawaiian town, officials said Thursday, as desperate residents jumped into the ocean in a bid to escape the fast-moving flames.

US Coast Guard officers plucked at least a dozen people from the water as emergency services were overwhelmed by a disaster that appeared to have erupted almost without warning.

Initially, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen on Wednesday told a press conference that six people had lost their lives.

"We are still in a search and rescue mode and so I don't know what will happen to that number," he said.

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Thursday morning, Maui County drastically revised that number up to at least 36.

Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke issued an emergency proclamation and told CNN the hospital system on the island of Maui "was overburdened with burn patients, people suffering from inhalation."

"911 is down. Cell service is down. Phone service is down," she said, adding that fires have burned hundreds of acres and were being fanned by winds up to 80 miles per hour.

Lahaina, a tourist town of 12,000 on the northwestern tip of Maui, is in ruins, Governor Josh Green said.

"Much of Lahaina on Maui has been destroyed and hundreds of local families have been displaced," said Green.

Video posted on social media showed blazes tearing through the heart of the beachfront town and sending up huge plumes of black smoke.

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"People are jumping into the water to avoid the fire," US Army Major General Kenneth Hara, the state adjutant general, told Hawaii News Now.

Hara said the strong winds had prevented helicopters from being used to carry out rescues or fight the fires.

Lahaina resident Claire Kent said she had seen her neighborhood burned less than an hour after she fled.

"The flames had moved all the way down to the end of the neighborhood," she told CNN.

"We were pulling out... onto the highway, you look back and there's cars with flames on both sides of the road, people stuck in traffic trying to get out," Kent said, describing the dangerous scene as "something out of a horror movie."

"I know for a fact people didn't get out," she said, adding that homeless people and people without access to vehicles seemed to have been trapped in the town.

Kent described how power and cell phone coverage had been knocked out Tuesday, and she had been unaware of any approaching danger until a sudden shift of wind sparked panic.

"It was all just word of mouth, like people running down the street saying 'you need to get out.'"

"There were guys riding around on bicycles, just screaming at people to leave."

More than 14,000 people were without power on Maui, according to tracking website poweroutage.us.

For those who managed to flee, there was worry over missing family.

"I still don't know where my little brother is," Tiare Lawrence told Hawaii News Now. "I don't know where my stepdad is."

"Everyone I know in Lahaina, their homes have burned down," Lawrence said.

Chrissy Lovitt told the outlet every boat in Lahaina Harbor had burned.

"It looks like something out of a movie, a war movie," Lovitt said. "The water was on fire from the fuel in the water."

Surf school manager Elizabeth Smith said she was safe in upcountry Kula, but was concerned for staff and their families in Lahaina.

"We do know that one couple was able to evacuate, but we don't know about the others," she told AFP by telephone.

Wildfires have been raging for weeks in parts of California, spurred on in part by conditions worsened by climate change, such as dry vegetation and strong winds.