Storm wind fans flames of destructive Lahaina fire

LAHAINA >> The threat of then-Hurricane Lane was briefly overshadowed Friday by a wind-whipped brush fire that burned up to 2,000 acres and at least seven homes in Lahaina, injured one person and forced the evacuation of hundreds of others.

The fire was reported around 12:45 a.m. in Kauaula Valley, with flames spreading rapidly toward more heavily populated areas. Approximately 100 homes in the Puamana, Punakea Loop and Lahaina- luna Road areas were evacuated.

A separate fire that started above Kaanapali at 7:30 a.m. consumed 800 acres and led to the evacuation of an equal number of homes in the Kaanapali Hillside subdivision.

Morning downpours from the approaching storm doused some of the flames and stalled the Lahaina fire’s advance on homes in Launiupoko. The fires were only 40 percent contained as of 5:30 p.m. Friday, but no homes were in immediate danger, according to Maui County Communications Director Rod Antone.

An unidentified woman who suffered burns on her arms and legs in the Lahaina fire was flown to Honolulu for treatment, he said.

A third fire, reported at 9:45 p.m. Thursday deep in a valley above Maalaea, burned itself out after charring 30 acres, Antone said.

The cause of the blazes has not been determined.

With the impacts from what is now Tropical Storm Lane still to be fully felt, storm-driven surf breached concrete barriers along coastal portions of Honoapiilani Highway on Friday, with road closures likely if conditions worsened. Meanwhile, three roads in the remote Hana and Kaupo region remained closed due to weather-related conditions.

Maui Electric Co. crews worked Friday to restore power to 4,100 customers in West Maui after damage to two of three transmission lines to the region and utility poles in Lahaina. On Molokai, 1,800 customers were without electricity.

Haleakala National Park remains closed through the weekend.

Public safety officials closed Honoapiilani Highway, the main traffic artery connecting West Maui to the rest of the island, for several hours as the larger Lahaina fire reached the road. The highway was reopened in both directions by 9:30 a.m.

Lucy Reardon, 23, said her family awoke at about 3 a.m. to a “bright, red glow” on the hillside above their home on the mauka section of Dickenson Street, off Lahainaluna Road. They began spraying their property with a garden hose but soon decided “to get the hell out.”

“The wind was pumping, the smoke was pumping, the ash was everywhere. It was kind of scary,” she said.

Jean and William Smythe live at the end of Dickenson Street, adjacent to vacant cane fields that have fueled numerous brush fires in the years since Pioneer Mill harvested its last sugar crop in 1999.

Because of those previous fires, Jean Smythe, 66, said she wasn’t too worried after waking to the smell of smoke. “We thought we were far enough away from the fire, and we’ve stayed before,” she said.

But that changed as gusting wind fanned the flames, driving them closer to homes along Lahainaluna Road.

“We packed whatever we could and went to the Jodo Mission,” she said.

When they returned home later in the day, their entire backyard was burned and blackened, including a large mango tree, a storage unit containing expensive tools and other items, and her husband’s childhood home, built in the 1940s.

“It’s very, very sad,” Jean Smythe said.

A neighbor’s two-story home was destroyed, as was a delivery truck and other vehicles and equipment on land leased to Lahaina Ice Co.

Fabio Maximino was staying with a cousin on Dickenson Street after getting his family to higher ground from Front Street in advance of Hurricane Lane, only to find them in danger overnight from the brush fire.

Waking to the sound of sirens, “when we came outside the house, this place was a giant fireball,” he said. “We just had time to go back in the house, get the kids and put them in the car and head down the street.”

Due to the fire, the American Red Cross shelter that had been set up at Lahaina Intermediate School in anticipation of the hurricane had to be relocated to the Lahaina Civic Center. At one point about 300 storm and fire evacuees had checked in, and an additional 200 waited outside for the all-clear signal from authorities.

With most of the fire evacuees allowed to return home, 170 people were reported at the shelter as of 5:30 p.m.

Fishing boat captain Terry Kellam evacuated his home on Prison Street in Lahaina town around 4:30 a.m.

“It’s a pretty gnarly fire. It was all smoke and ash when we left, and embers were blowing in the air,” said Kellam, 63. “You could hardly see across the street.”

He went to his parents’ home in Launiupoko, where the fire came within about 500 yards. Residents there also were ordered to evacuate briefly, until heavy rain intervened around 9:30 a.m.