My best friend's perspective on the Maui Fires....few pics.

Yessongs · August 17, 2023

Sadly, my best friend John, was a victim of the recent fires on the Island of Maui. Met him in 1976, finishing up college for both of us, working part time. He was in my wedding to my first wife. We shared a condo for 2 years, had a blast needless to say. He was my "clubbing" buddy back in the day ( when we were younger of course LOL! ) He survived the fire, got out just in time with his wife and cat. Even more amazing is that 80% of the Lahaina area is burnt to the ground, his condo in that particular building sustained no damage...amazing. A few pics of us at dinner in 2022 before we left to come back to Thailand. He is in the blue shirt looking like Don Ho and his wife next to him. Tough times ahead for Maui. Sad.....you can see in the first 2 pics here, he snapped as they were fleeing, the fire was right on top of him.

The following is his narrative he sent me:

Mike,

Maui is not a fun place now with the destruction of Lahaina downtown. I am sure by now you have seen many of the videos and pictures of the fire. I was there and it was worse than the videos.

The county was completely unprepared. Emergency alerts were being sent through the internet and cell phone. That was a failure because power was down and cell service spotty. Evacuation plans were nonexistent. The siren system that they test every month to warn about tsunami or other emergencies was never activated. We were lucky to have left in time. The fire heat at the back of the property was intense. As we exited our property, we were greeted by the apartments across the street on fire and power poles down blocking the roadway southbound were I wanted to go. Headed north and traffic was being directed toward Front Street behind the Cannery Mall. I didn’t want to go that way, wanted to go south to get out of the westside. Luck again, police blocked my path and said the bypass (where the fire was burning) was open. Didn’t hesitate and went that way. Lots of fire along the roadway but it was completely passable. Saw many of the fire first responders on the roadside with a defeated look. Just could not fight the fire being driven by 60mph+ winds. We made it safely in Kahului, slept in an upstairs spot in a friend’s warehouse. Now at a condo at a resort in Wailea until end of September. A friend of Deborah's offered her condo and we are very grateful as it gives us some time to think. Housing is uncertain after that. More to say about the incompetence of the state.

We were allowed back last Friday. Had to walk in as they were not allowing any auto traffic in. Our condo is still there. Of the 7 residential buildings, 5 remain. There is nothing left of the buildings that burned. We entered our home, no smoke damage, no damage to the exterior of the building. My building was next to a building that burnt to the ground. We are lucky, we got clothes and some of the things that are important to us. So many have lost everything, so we definitely feel some guilt from having our home standing to where have found temp housing. While some optimism was there when we saw our home, reality has hit, and I don’t see anyway we will be able get back in there for some time. Rubble must be cleared from the property for safety and adjacent area cleared so that we can have road access. Downed power lines need to be cleared, power and water service restored. That is the minimum.

Today, we are shellshocked and incredibly sad. We lost our home called Lahaina. We lost the place that we walk through, greeted by friends in the downtown. At the Kaiser medical facility that we walk to, they greeted us by name. Our favorite whale watch company that knew us very well, is gone. All the personal connections, the places, and events we enjoyed have been replaced by ash. The rebuilding will be years and I am not sure that we are going to stay and be part of that long journey.

Just writing this so has taken the energy from me. But I have to say a little about the incompetence that led to this disaster. The county and state officials knew this could happen. They had plenty of warning starting with Hurricane Lane in 2018. It was the preview of this disaster. Fire blown by winds, no power, no cell service, utility poles toppled. Fire took the same path, burning down toward our condo as well as burning in the center median of the road before it would hit the wood structures of the town. But the wind died, and first responders were able to get control. Power was restored 3 days later. This pattern has continued for 5 years with the most recent wildfire in November 2022 which threatened the solar power farm that was the in the same path taken by the fire in 2018. All these fires and they did nothing. No program to control dried vegetation, no fire lines built to slow a wildfire, no planting of native vegetation that is resistant to wildfires, no placing power lines below ground. We have been in drought, which obviously would feed a wildfire. No alert system that could function in a power outage, no evacuation planning. But plenty of stupid and greed as developers kept adding homes in these areas and probably padding the pockets of these clowns and their re-election funds. The height of the stupidly was the building of a neighborhood in the fire path adjacent to my complex and allowing them to install above ground propane tanks.

So, what happened last Tuesday. High winds that downed power poles, utility company power was not shut off during the high winds, thus a fire. By 9am, announced 100% contained, even though you could still see it smoldering. Move first responders to deal with other situations rather stand watch over the fire area. Winds gusting 60-80mph, fire restarts and follows the same path as most of the previous fires in that area. Watch it come down, moving, but I would not consider it a fast moving fire. Hits neighborhood with the propane tanks, then it starts. You could hear the explosion of every tank and could see the fire intensity and movement increase. I can still hear one boom after another. It became a fire storm coming down the mountain and there was not a thing anyone could do but run at that point. I hope everyone of these officials choke on the blood spilled by their neglect and incompetence.

We are fearing that we lost friends in one of the buildings. I told these people they should leave but didn’t cuss at them to go like I did to a couple of fools in my building. The cadaver dogs have been brought in and I am hoping to get out to our home, once they start letting residents in again, and find a big red “x” on the remains of the building that indicates searched, no remains found. There were so many close calls with people trapped in cars as the fire approached. The ones that escaped were those that jumped in the ocean and were eventually rescued by the coast guard. Just too much.

Anyway, we are alive and in an area that is safe. Just want to start sleeping better and stop being so angry.

John

Glasseye · August 30, 2023

Fcuking power companies. Similar happened in Ca. not long ago. Some of those executives should be sent to prison.

Dog awful !

fforest · September 12, 2023

On 8/17/2023 at 9:20 AM, Yessongs said:

Sadly, my best friend John, was a victim of the recent fires on the Island of Maui. Met him in 1976, finishing up college for both of us, working part time. He was in my wedding to my first wife. We shared a condo for 2 years, had a blast needless to say. He was my "clubbing" buddy back in the day ( when we were younger of course LOL! ) He survived the fire, got out just in time with his wife and cat. Even more amazing is that 80% of the Lahaina area is burnt to the ground, his condo in that particular building sustained no damage...amazing. A few pics of us at dinner in 2022 before we left to come back to Thailand. He is in the blue shirt looking like Don Ho and his wife next to him. Tough times ahead for Maui. Sad.....you can see in the first 2 pics here, he snapped as they were fleeing, the fire was right on top of him.

The following is his narrative he sent me:

Mike,

Maui is not a fun place now with the destruction of Lahaina downtown. I am sure by now you have seen many of the videos and pictures of the fire. I was there and it was worse than the videos.

The county was completely unprepared. Emergency alerts were being sent through the internet and cell phone. That was a failure because power was down and cell service spotty. Evacuation plans were nonexistent. The siren system that they test every month to warn about tsunami or other emergencies was never activated. We were lucky to have left in time. The fire heat at the back of the property was intense. As we exited our property, we were greeted by the apartments across the street on fire and power poles down blocking the roadway southbound were I wanted to go. Headed north and traffic was being directed toward Front Street behind the Cannery Mall. I didn’t want to go that way, wanted to go south to get out of the westside. Luck again, police blocked my path and said the bypass (where the fire was burning) was open. Didn’t hesitate and went that way. Lots of fire along the roadway but it was completely passable. Saw many of the fire first responders on the roadside with a defeated look. Just could not fight the fire being driven by 60mph+ winds. We made it safely in Kahului, slept in an upstairs spot in a friend’s warehouse. Now at a condo at a resort in Wailea until end of September. A friend of Deborah's offered her condo and we are very grateful as it gives us some time to think. Housing is uncertain after that. More to say about the incompetence of the state.

We were allowed back last Friday. Had to walk in as they were not allowing any auto traffic in. Our condo is still there. Of the 7 residential buildings, 5 remain. There is nothing left of the buildings that burned. We entered our home, no smoke damage, no damage to the exterior of the building. My building was next to a building that burnt to the ground. We are lucky, we got clothes and some of the things that are important to us. So many have lost everything, so we definitely feel some guilt from having our home standing to where have found temp housing. While some optimism was there when we saw our home, reality has hit, and I don’t see anyway we will be able get back in there for some time. Rubble must be cleared from the property for safety and adjacent area cleared so that we can have road access. Downed power lines need to be cleared, power and water service restored. That is the minimum.

Today, we are shellshocked and incredibly sad. We lost our home called Lahaina. We lost the place that we walk through, greeted by friends in the downtown. At the Kaiser medical facility that we walk to, they greeted us by name. Our favorite whale watch company that knew us very well, is gone. All the personal connections, the places, and events we enjoyed have been replaced by ash. The rebuilding will be years and I am not sure that we are going to stay and be part of that long journey.

Just writing this so has taken the energy from me. But I have to say a little about the incompetence that led to this disaster. The county and state officials knew this could happen. They had plenty of warning starting with Hurricane Lane in 2018. It was the preview of this disaster. Fire blown by winds, no power, no cell service, utility poles toppled. Fire took the same path, burning down toward our condo as well as burning in the center median of the road before it would hit the wood structures of the town. But the wind died, and first responders were able to get control. Power was restored 3 days later. This pattern has continued for 5 years with the most recent wildfire in November 2022 which threatened the solar power farm that was the in the same path taken by the fire in 2018. All these fires and they did nothing. No program to control dried vegetation, no fire lines built to slow a wildfire, no planting of native vegetation that is resistant to wildfires, no placing power lines below ground. We have been in drought, which obviously would feed a wildfire. No alert system that could function in a power outage, no evacuation planning. But plenty of stupid and greed as developers kept adding homes in these areas and probably padding the pockets of these clowns and their re-election funds. The height of the stupidly was the building of a neighborhood in the fire path adjacent to my complex and allowing them to install above ground propane tanks.

So, what happened last Tuesday. High winds that downed power poles, utility company power was not shut off during the high winds, thus a fire. By 9am, announced 100% contained, even though you could still see it smoldering. Move first responders to deal with other situations rather stand watch over the fire area. Winds gusting 60-80mph, fire restarts and follows the same path as most of the previous fires in that area. Watch it come down, moving, but I would not consider it a fast moving fire. Hits neighborhood with the propane tanks, then it starts. You could hear the explosion of every tank and could see the fire intensity and movement increase. I can still hear one boom after another. It became a fire storm coming down the mountain and there was not a thing anyone could do but run at that point. I hope everyone of these officials choke on the blood spilled by their neglect and incompetence.

We are fearing that we lost friends in one of the buildings. I told these people they should leave but didn’t cuss at them to go like I did to a couple of fools in my building. The cadaver dogs have been brought in and I am hoping to get out to our home, once they start letting residents in again, and find a big red “x” on the remains of the building that indicates searched, no remains found. There were so many close calls with people trapped in cars as the fire approached. The ones that escaped were those that jumped in the ocean and were eventually rescued by the coast guard. Just too much.

Anyway, we are alive and in an area that is safe. Just want to start sleeping better and stop being so angry.

John