LAHAINA >> Maui County on Wednesday reopened two more business zones in the Lahaina wildfire disaster area, including the parcel encompassing Lahaina Cannery Mall and its two anchor tenants, Longs Drugs and Safeway.

The community cornerstones welcomed customers for the first time since the Aug. 8 inferno that consumed historic Lahaina town and surrounding neighborhoods, killing at least 115 people and destroying more than 2,200 structures, most of them homes.

As she was paying for her groceries early Wednesday afternoon, Kaanapali resident Bonnie Geary, 59, gave Safeway cashier Maria O’Grady a heartfelt hug.

“Oh, my gosh, I was walking down the aisles with tears in my eyes. It was bittersweet,” Geary said. “It’s a little bit of normal with each opening — not that anything will be normal again. There’s been too many lives lost and all that history.”

Four business zones have opened to the public so far to provide needed goods and services to Lahaina residents and restore jobs, but county officials have given no indication when the 7,000-plus residents displaced by the fire will be able to return to their properties to pick through the ruins, document their losses for insurance claims and perhaps grieve and find some kind of closure.

“At this time, there is no list allowing residents to return to the disaster area in Lahaina. There will be a coordinated effort to develop a plan for the safe return of residents. Currently, the disaster area is restricted to authorized personnel only,” according to the county’s daily wildfire disaster update.

The update noted the dangers include toxic ash, broken glass, exposed electrical wire and unstable structures. For those who can return to their properties, county officials are urging the use of personal protective equipment, including tight-fitting NIOSH or N95 respirator masks.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has nine teams in Lahaina assessing and removing household hazardous waste, the county update said. EPA has completed its work in Kula in Upcountry Maui, where separate brush fires Aug. 8 destroyed at least 16 homes, along with three in Olinda.

In a pre-taped update posted Wednesday on YouTube, Maui Emergency Management Agency interim Administrator Darryl Oliveira said the EPA cleanup that started Aug. 26 has cleared 464 properties of materials including paint, batteries and propane tanks. Structural integrity inspections also are underway, he said.

“In the near future we hope to move into the next phase, which is to support residents coming back in as part of a reentry, again, to survey their properties and to establish some form of closure as we move forward,” Oliveira said.

Also Wednesday, the Maui Police Department released the names of two more people who were among the 115 known to have died in the fire, including 14-year-old Keyiro Fuentes, only the second child to have been formally identified as a fatality.

Fuentes was a day away from starting his junior year at Lahainaluna High School when the wind-whipped firestorm consumed his home. His remains were found in his bedroom with his dog nearby and taken to the Lahaina Police Station by his family.

The other fatality, Maurice “Shadow” Buen, 79, of Lahaina, was a retired sport fisherman, according to family social media posts.

MPD has released the names of 63 Lahaina fire fatalities. Five more have been identified but their families had not been notified.

In addition to the parcel that includes the Lahaina Cannery Mall, the zone around Kupuohi and Ulupono streets, known by some as Lahaina Business Park, also was cleared for public access Wednesday, but few of the businesses there appeared to be open.

The county on Sept. 5 lifted restrictions on two Keawe Street parcels in the same area, at Walgreens and the Lahaina Gateway shopping center, where most of the tenants were still closed, including Foodland Farms.

Directly across Honoa­piilani Highway from Lahaina Gateway, Longs Drugs and Safeway were the only stores open at Lahaina Cannery Mall.

The mall, the only fully enclosed, air-conditioned shopping center on Maui, was built in 1987 with 130,599 square feet of leaseable space, according to its website. Other tenants include Denny’s, Starbucks, Jersey Mike’s, Crazy Shirts, Hawaiian Island Creations, ABC Stores and a number of specialty shops.

The mall still doesn’t have electricity or water, according to Safeway Store Director Bobby Galapon, who said Maui Electric Co. indicated the power would be restored Friday. In the meantime, the supermarket is being run on generators. And without water, its deli, bakery, hot and cold food bars, poke counter and other store-produced items are not available.

That didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the customers who trickled in Wednesday, or the supermarket’s employees, who all wore T-shirts with “Kokua Lahaina @MauiStrong Safeway” on the back and who posed for a photo with visiting company executives under a “Lahaina Strong” banner just inside the entrance before the doors opened at 10 a.m.

“We’ve been waiting on it. It’s exciting,” said Assistant Store Director Arbee Virgino, 44. “It’s kind of like therapy for some of our employees for them to be seeing customers again. It helps them move on.”

Before the fire, the Lahaina Safeway employed 163 workers, 70 of whom lost their residences, he said. Eighty have returned to work. Stocker Leosan Miguel, 38, was especially happy to be back, saying he had worked only three days in the five weeks since the devastating fire.

Lahaina resident Keoni Keomaka called the Safeway reopening “a game-changer,” explaining that when the supermarket was open 24/7 before the fire, he’d stop by almost every day for snacks and prepared food.

“You don’t have to drive to the other side. It saves time and gas,” said Keomaka, 26, as he pushed a shopping cart filled with cold packs of soda and fruit juice through the parking lot.

Temporary hours at the Lahaina Safeway are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

Customer traffic also was light at Longs Drugs at the other end of the mall, where a number of employees wore tuberose and carnation lei given to them to celebrate their return to business.

A spokesperson for CVS Health, which owns and operates Longs Drugs in Hawaii, declined an interview but said “the team is pleased to be able to serve the community again.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Find assistance and information on the Aug. 8 Maui wildfires, including a map of reopened zones, at the official County of Maui website MauiRecovers.org.