The winning
Kahului reads as ka hului, the winning or the taking. The specific event behind it is not recorded, which is common — many names preserve a reference whose story has been lost.
It is also read as a place of gathering.
Burned on purpose
In 1900 the town was deliberately burned to halt an outbreak of bubonic plague, the same year and the same policy that produced the accidental fire that destroyed Honolulu's Chinatown.
Kahului is now the island's commercial centre, with the deep-draft harbour and the main airport, and most of Maui's population lives in or near it.