8 added to list of wildfire victims

WAILUKU >> The official death toll from the Aug. 8 Lahaina wildfire remained at 115 Tuesday, but the Maui Police Department released the names of eight more victims who died.

All but one, a visitor from California, were Lahaina residents. Some of their names had already been disclosed by family and friends on social media and in media accounts. They are Clyde Wakida, 74; Todd Yamafuji, 68; Antonia “Toni” Molina, 64; Freeman Tam Lung, 59; Joseph Schilling, 67; Narciso and Vanessa Baylosis Jr., both 67; and Theresa Cook, 72, of Sacramento.

Wakida’s family went to the county’s Family Assistance Center in Kahului on Aug. 13 to provide DNA samples. His wife of 46 years, Penny Wakida, said he had refused to flee the flames in order to stay behind to try to save the four-bedroom, four-bath home on Puapihi Street they built 35 years ago and where they raised their two children.

Officials contacted Wakida several days later to tell her they had found human remains on the property.

“He didn’t want to evacuate,” she told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser. “He refused to come with me. He thought he could save the house.”

The Wakida ohana is active in West Maui community affairs. Penny Wakida, now retired, came to Lahaina from the mainland to teach English at Lahainaluna High School. Her husband, a retired construction manager, was a Lahainaluna alumnus, and their two children, Alexa and Nicholas, also graduated from the school.

Clyde Wakida’s father was Lahaina tennis coaching legend Shigeto “Shigesh” Wakida, who died in 2001. The public tennis courts on Front Street named after the elder Wakida are now in ruins.

Based on Schilling’s final text messages, family and friends presumed he had died at the Hale Mahaolu Eono independent-living, affordable rental apartment complex on Lahaina­luna Road after staying behind to help five other residents who were unable to evacuate on their own.

“We are trapped, can’t see a thing, plus when u try to breath it burns ur lungs,” read a text Schilling sent to a friend at 3:51 p.m. Aug. 8, according to ABC News.

After texting that he was breathing through wet towels and watching flames overtake nearby houses, Schilling’s last sent text message at 4:06 p.m. warned, “Cars parked on the road now exploding.”

“There isn’t anybody in the family, or who knew Joe, that would be surprised that he would put himself at risk to help somebody else,” his brother, Bill Schilling, told ABC News.

Molina’s family said she was found by her brother in their family home near the Pioneer Mill smokestack mauka of Honoapiilani Highway, according to Facebook posts.

Family members reported on Facebook that the Baylosises were trying to leave Lahaina in a black Honda CRV the night of Aug. 8, headed north to Kahana, but never arrived.

Cook’s daughter, Melissa Cook, said her mother was staying at the historic Best Western Pioneer Inn in Lahaina town on Aug. 8 and was supposed to fly home to Sacramento the next day.

She reported on Facebook that her mother left the hotel on foot heading south on Wharf Street and was last seen walking past the banyan tree around 5:30 or 5:45 p.m. Melissa Cook immediately contacted Maui police, the American Red Cross and other agencies as well as hospitals to report her mother missing and submitted a DNA sample to her local police to help with identification.