Fires in Lahaina Maui Cause Great Trauma and Fear

The enormous flames of the Lahaina, Maui fire destroyed the city, taking 115 lives in August. At the same time my Aunt Kathy and her daughter Caitlyn were there. Before the fire, she had one of the most beautiful nights of her life. The next day, everything took a terrible turn. She looked out the window and saw the largest flames that she had ever seen. 

It all started one afternoon, when Kathy noticed that her phone had no signal. They found that other people in the area were having the same problem.

Kathy was telling me about the days leading up to the ongoing tragedy and the horror that these victims experienced. On the day that there was no cell service, she noticed smoke and saw a big fire near the resort that she was staying at. The fire was put out, and it seemed to be out, she was told that it was out. However, we don’t really know if that is true. 

As Kathy was spending the day resting, there were very high winds, “It was very abnormal.” Looking back, the wind was one of the only warnings of the fire. “Usually when it gets that windy like a hurricane there’s a warning but there wasn’t, so people just continued as normal.” The power went out early in the day. Kathy, her daughter and friend eventually went to bed, but were woken up by an alarm in the hotel at three a.m. She looked out the window and saw the biggest flames that she had ever seen. The flames covered almost the whole land it seemed like.”

They were on the sixth floor and took the stairs. She said that everyone was rushing and panicking, with faces of fear, “We had to make so many decisions that if we didn’t make we would’ve been dead.” Still no warning sirens, but lots of firetrucks and emergency vehicles driving by with sirens. She was awake the rest of the night, walking and looking for a safe place to rest and food to eat. No one had food available. “Some shelters had food but wouldn’t offer it to survivors.”

As the day went on, people were running in the streets, covered in ashes, and telling their tales of escaping the smoke and flames, some telling her how they could save their families and run by dead bodies in the streets. These people disobeyed police by getting out of their cars and running away for their lives from the fire. “People even ran and jumped into the water just to try to escape the fire.” About 100 people were found on the neighboring island from the fire. These people were told they couldn’t cross because of electrical lines.

Many residents, lawmakers, government officials were not on the islands during the fire.  Hawaii has warnings implemented but none were put in place. No sirens were played at all and if they were, so many lives could have been saved.

 These fires have shown me how important fire prevention is. The smallest things could make a fire and grow a fire. Just having a fire extinguisher and trimming your grass can make a big difference when a fire starts to appear.