One of the first victims of the wildfires in Hawaii to be identified by Hawaii officials was Buddy Jantoc, 79, whose family described him as a musician who once toured on the mainland with the likes of Carlos Santana before settling into a more laid-back life on Maui, where he lived at a complex for lower-income seniors and played bass guitar at hula competitions.

Family members said they started to panic when they could not reach Jantoc in the days after the fire tore through Lahaina. He was the kind of grandfather, they said, who always checked in after a heavy rain or storm to assure his family his house was OK, and not to worry. Even if he was onstage performing, he would answer texts from his family.

So as days passed with no word from Jantoc and no answers from the Hale Mahaolu independent living complex in Lahaina where he had lived, his family started to fear the worst.

“I had a bad feeling,” said his oldest granddaughter, Keshia Alakai.

On Saturday, two police officers showed up to say that Jantoc’s body had been found in his home. Several other residents of the same senior-living complex have been reported missing by relatives, but their fates were still unknown today.

Jantoc was legally blind and had difficulty hearing and walking. His relatives said they were desperate to know whether anyone had tried to help him evacuate, or whether he had been warned about the fire.

“I’m hoping he was asleep,” said Shari Jantoc, his daughter-in-law. “I hope to God he did not suffer.”

Jantoc’s family described him as an easygoing man — “Mr. Aloha” — who wore his hair long and always wore his signature visor. They said he had performed with notable musicians including percussionist Pete Escovedo and guitarist George Benson, but rarely discussed his musical past unless prompted.

“I’d literally have to ask him, Who you played with? He’d say, do you know Santana?” Shari Jantoc said.

Relatives said Jantoc had struggled to afford the soaring housing costs on Maui and had been thrilled when a spot in the senior-living complex opened up about five years ago. Apartments there are income-restricted, and rents are held to 30% of residents’ income, according to the complex’s website. Officials from the complex did not return phone messages today.

Alakai, said Jantoc’s apartment resembled a music store, crammed with guitars, a drum set and other instruments.

“I don’t even think there was a sofa in there,” she said.

She has been listening to old voicemail messages from her grandfather, and remembering how he would shake his head at the traffic and hectic pace of life on Oahu, where most of his family lives, or call to tell her to gas up her car if he saw a news report about a gasoline sale somewhere around Honolulu.

Now, she said the family is trying to arrange for his remains to be released for cremation, and agonizing over how he might have spent his last moments, and whether he could have been saved.

“For him to be taken away from us in the way he was taken — how he was suffering through it all?” Alakai said. “Was he there before anyone even looked? What pain he felt — that’s what is eating up at me. I’m just asking why.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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