KAHULUI >> The death toll from the Lahaina fire — America’s deadliest in a century — was at 96 on Sunday while families visited a newly created Maui County Family Assistance Center to help document the missing and provide DNA mouth swabs to identify the dead.
Penny Wakida showed up Sunday to help identify her husband of 46 years, Clyde, who refused to flee with Penny and their dog, Max, to try to save the four-bedroom, four-bath home on Puapihi Street that they built 35 years ago and where they raised their son and daughter.
Officials contacted Penny days later to tell her they had found human remains on the property.
“He didn’t want to evacuate,” she told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser at the Family Assistance Center on Sunday in between hugs with her son, Nick, 41. “He refused to come with me. He thought he could save the house. We know he’s dead.”
So Penny’s daughter, Lexa Hanohano, and Clyde’s sisters, Avis Wakida and Teri Young, provided DNA samples at the assistance center, set up at the Kahului Community Center.
About 100 people have provided details on the missing and most have given DNA since the center opened Thursday, said former Maui County employee Anita Ahuja, who volunteered to help grieving families.
“They’re in a real raw place,” Ahuja said.
Estimates continue to vary wildly on how many people are missing or dead, with one Facebook group called the “Maui Fire, Flood and Disaster relief group” listing more than 700 people in the fire zones as “Not Located.”
Gov. Josh Green and county officials last week repeatedly warned a grieving island and state that the death toll likely will continue to rise.
One of the Facebook page organizers, Ellie Erickson, 27, of Kihei, did not immediately respond to questions from the Star-Advertiser about differences between confirmed deaths and the many more listed as “Not Located,” among other questions.
But last week she told the Star-Advertiser in an email:
“I started this up because on the first night of the fire I couldn’t find my loved ones and I was absolutely freaking out. The facebook comments on Roll Call posts were too overwhelming and plentiful to go through so I created the google sheet in order to organize data from the community. … The Lahaina fires are deeply devastating for me. Working on the West Side, many of my closest friends live where the fires were located. Many of my friends lost their homes and all their belongings. People are losing their loved ones, which is the biggest tragedy of all. My hope is that this list continues to be a source for peace of mind for those marked as ‘found’, and a resource for the first responders currently working on recovery efforts.”
Weary firefighters on Sunday continued to make progress to “contain” the fires, a definition that only means how far they’ve gone in encircling them, not extinguishing them.
Sunday night
>> The 2,170-acre Lahaina fire was 85% contained with five engines, three tankers and one ladder truck on-site.
>> The 678-acre Upcountry/Kula fire was 60% contained with three helicopters, four engines, two tankers and one utility vehicle on-site. The county warned that hot spots “in gulches and other hard to reach places, along with land divisions and fences, make this a difficult fire to contain.” The fire destroyed 19 homes — three in Olinda and 16 in Kula.
>> The Pulehu/Kihei fire was declared 100% contained Saturday. One Chinook helicopter, one engine, three tankers, two bulldozers and two utility vehicles remained on-site Sunday.
>> The 1-acre, Puukolii/Kaanapali fire was extinguished Saturday.
All of the county’s six evacuation centers now have power, but access to burned-out Lahaina town remains restricted to residents with ID who can prove they live there.
County spokesperson Mahina Martin could not immediately identify the status of the Hale Mahaolu Eono senior housing complex in West Maui following reports it was gone.
But she said that a homeless encampment of a dozen occupants on the southeastern side of Lahaina called Cut Mountain on vacant county land was undamaged by the fire.
“They are still there,” Martin said.
State schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi on Sunday announced that most Maui schools will reopen this week — beginning with a return of employees today, followed by students Wednesday.
King Kekaulike High, Princess Nahienaena Elementary, Lahaina Intermediate and Lahainaluna High “remain closed and will reopen when it is safe to return,” Hayashi said in a statement. “Sadly, King Kamehameha III Elementary on Front Street was damaged beyond repair. While assessments are being made about the closed campuses, we are looking at other options for our students who remain in West Maui including our King Kamehameha III Elementary students.”
Security on Sunday continued to tighten around Lahaina, the evacuation centers and the Family Assistance Center, with officials citing the need to bar media access to protect the privacy of stunned evacuees and grieving families.
The county denied media access to the Family Assistance Center on Sunday but several families still shared with the Star-Advertiser their pain and their reasons for providing DNA samples.
Sallyann Gomes and her daughter, Tehani Kuhaulua, hope to identify Sallyann’s mother, Donna Gomes, who would have turned 72 on Tuesday.
She lived on Lahainaluna Road with Sallyann’s cousin, Colleen Jones, who also has not been found.
Sallyann saw a social media video taken of the Lahaina fire and recognized one of the locations as her mother’s house.
“My mom has diabetes and my mom can barely walk at times,” Sallyann said. “I know deep in my heart that was my mom laying in the front, right in front of her house. I want them to release her body back to me and they said if I gave a swab it might be faster to get her body back.”
Sallyann fled her Baker Street apartment with her 2-year-old granddaughter wrapped in a sarong.
She focused on trying to remain calm for her granddaughter amid the chaos.
“It was pitch black, thick smoke, you couldn’t see, screaming, people honking their horns, sirens, embers flying, burning my hair,” she said.
“There was no warning,” Sallyann said. “I don’t blame the authorities at all. … It’s going to take years to rebuild.”
Green said in a video message released Sunday that the Lahaina fire was fueled by the remnants of Hurricane Dora.
“When the winds rose up, winds gusting as high as 81 mph, fire spread rapidly — we believe 60 mph to 81 mph across that part of the island — and that meant that fire traveled 1 mile a minute,” Green said.
Green returned Sunday night from Maui, issuing a fifth emergency proclamation suspending additional laws to respond to the crisis. Under it, emergency health care facilities and professionals are immune from civil liability; pharmacists are given more leeway to directly refill prescriptions for up to a 30-day supply for those impacted; the $10 million cap on expenditures from the state’s disaster fund are lifted; and nonessential travel to West Maui is discouraged to free up accommodations for displaced residents and emergency workers.
Ernest Buen, 83, showed up at the Family Assistance Center to provide a cheek swab in hopes of identifying his younger brother, Maurice “Shadow” Buen, 80, who lived in an assisted living facility in Lahaina.
“He had a hard time walking,” Ernest Buen said.
“Shadow’s” daughter, Kymberly, lives in California and Buen hopes to bring her closure by helping to identify her father through his own DNA.
“I’m doing it for his daughter,” Buen said.
Maui Fire Chief Brad Ventura confirmed that firefighting crews at one point were overwhelmed by the Lahaina fire and had to abandon two MFD fire trucks — one stationed in Wailuku and one in Kihei.
Asked for details, Ventura said: “When I talk to the firefighters and try to understand what they went through that day, it was something that nobody could be prepared for as far as the type of weather we were facing and the type of fire. Our firefighters worked so hard that day to save so many homes and so many people that they couldn’t save them all. They’re hurting.
“You’ve seen the videos on social media, you saw what the weather was that day, you saw how the fire was laying down, and you couldn’t get in front of it, you couldn’t get to the side of it,” Ventura said.
Maui County’s three state senators — including Angus McKelvey (D, West Maui-Maalaea-South Maui), whose home was destroyed in Lahaina — on Sunday focused on thanking donors and volunteers who turned out at the state Capitol for the Maui Fire Relief Donation Drive last week.
“Words cannot describe our absolute heartfelt aloha for the donations that were made to our suffering community in their time of need,” said McKelvey and Sens. Gilbert Keith-Agaran (D, Wailuku-Kahului-Waihee) and Lynn DeCoite (D, East and Upcountry Maui-Molokai-Lanai). “The efforts at the Capitol have resulted in thousands of boxes and bags that have been prepared and are either on the way or are ready to be delivered to Maui. Already, over 10,000 pounds of food and other high need items, including diapers and baby formula, have been sent to Maui.
“Mahalo to everyone who donated to the drive, including the donations for Maui, and the donations of materials and food to support the volunteers,” the senators said. “Mahalo to the over 1,000 volunteers that helped collect, sort, package, and load the incredible volume of donated items. Seeing the people of O‘ahu join together in such a monumental way to support our Maui ‘ohana is inspirational, and a reminder of what Hawai‘i can do.”
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Staff writers Christie Wilson and Andrew Gomes contributed to this report.
