Is there any difference between "the fires IN Maui" and "the fires ON Maui"?

Question

1.0 "Enhanced by Hurricane Dora, high winds were fueling the fires IN Maui and the Big Island"

2.0 "Enhanced by Hurricane Dora, high winds were fueling the fires ON Maui and the Big Island"

if 1.0 suggest that the fires are occurring within the geographical area of Maui and the Big Island.

and

2.0 indicates that the fires are specifically impacting the surfaces or land areas of Maui and the Big Island

isn't it the same? I mean, isn't "within the geographical area of Maui" same as "on surfaces or land areas of Maui and the Big Island"???

Answer 1

They're both OK and mean the same thing. The first is more common.

The important point is that you could not say

high winds were fueling the fires ON Maui

if Maui were not an island. For example:

"High winds are fueling some fires on Charlottetown."

is completely incorrect.

But,

"High winds are fueling some fires on Prince Edward Island."

is fine.

Answer 2

To be absolutely correct, things happen "on" an island but "in" a named location such as a town. It can be tricky when an island is a town. "I have a house on Pine Island" and "I live in Pine Island" are both correct if "Pine Island" is an island that's also a named town.

I'm not an expert on Hawaii, so I can't say for sure that Maui isn't both an island name and a place name. However, it is not correct to write "The wildfires are burning in the island of X" if X is just an island.

Answer 3

You can think of it like this:

1. The fires in Maui...
2. The fires on Maui [Island]...

When talking about Maui, both "on Maui" and "in Maui" are acceptable and interchangeable, because we know that Maui is an island. But you would never say "in Maui Island".

When talking about Ellis Island we always call it "Ellis Island", not "Ellis". We would never say "in Ellis Island". We would only say, "on Ellis Island"