LAHAINA >> Kekoa Agamata-Pakele, 29, still can’t sleep eight days after he escaped the inferno that destroyed the six-bedroom, two-bath house that he owned with his uncle, Francis Hussey.
There are so many things to grieve, to be thankful for, to worry about that Agamata-Pakele could not even begin to list them when asked by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Wednesday about the thoughts that spin through his head in the quiet of the night.
He grew up in Lahaina, went to all the public schools and had grown accustomed to wildfires on the Valley Isle, much of which remains in drought — a contributing factor to the Aug. 8 blazes that exploded nearly simultaneously and is America’s deadliest wildfire disaster in over a century.
“Firefighters always have it under control but I’ve never seen something like that before,”Agamata-Pakele said at a Shell gas station along Lower Honoapiilani Highway near what was his house nearby on Hiki Place. “You couldn’t see anything in the sky. It was totally black at 3 in the afternoon but there were red embers everywhere.”
Agamata-Pakele, like other Lahaina evacuees, told their stories of survival — just outside the barricaded areas where the fire continues to burn — after Gov. Josh Green and Maui County officials agreed to open Lahaina Bypass Road to public access to help the community begin to return to life as it was.
But it’s going to be a long and expensive slog before life in Lahaina begins to feel anything like normal again.
Several evacuees remain traumatized, but grateful, while they mourn people listed as “not found” that they may never see again.
Asked what they were thinking about as they fled for their lives in sometimes stalled traffic as wind-driven flames swirled around them and familiar roads were suddenly closed, nearly everyone who spoke to the Star-
Advertiser on Wednesday said they were worried about the safety of somebody else whom they could not reach because cell service was shut down by the fires and remained sketchy even on Wednesday as power and service continue to slowly return.
The power went out late Aug. 7 and parents assumed the first day of classes would not be held the next morning as the outage continued on Aug. 8 at Princess Nahienaena Elementary School and Lahaina Intermediate and Lahainaluna High schools.
A fire broke out early Tuesday morning on an empty patch of land across from the Lahaina Intermediate and Lahainaluna High schools that attracted a lot of community attention — especially from parents of school-age children who were excited about starting their first day of class.
Later in the day the 2,170-acre Lahaina fire — that continues to be the focus of mainland and international media attention — erupted, blackening the sky and sending swirling embers that ignited more than 2,000 structures, 80% of which were homes.
Panic and gridlock followed as an unknown number of people trying to escape were forced to abandon their vehicles along Front Street — many jumping into the ocean to flee the flames that by accounts were so hot that rubber slippers melted on the road as they ran to the water.
Ellen Sumer and her husband, Melvyn Sumer — both 34 and Lahainaluna High sweethearts — instead drove mauka up Lahainaluna Road and into the original fire zone with their 1-year-old son, Ezekiel, to beg her Auntie Anna and Uncle John Agapai to evacuate.
They did not know that Lahaina Town was ablaze and she could not reach them by cellphone.
“We couldn’t call and they had no idea there was a fire,” Ellen Sumer said.
The Sumers drove directly toward the original fire near her uncle and auntie rather than seek safety.
“Everything was burning,” Ellen said. “The wind was howling. A lot of neighbors’ roofs fell off and they were standing there watching their homes burn. It was scary. We were almost driving blind as we ran to auntie’s house. I needed to get them out.”
But when Ellen begged her uncle and aunt to leave, they refused.
“A lot of people stayed,” she said.
Her uncle and aunt — and their home — survived.
But Ben Aquino, 19, told the Star-Advertiser on Wednesday that two of his classmates at Lahainaluna High died, “and a bunch of others are still missing.”
Aquino said he does not know what to feel having survived while some of his friends died.
“I don’t know how to show my emotions,” he said while overlooking the destruction of Lahaina from Lahainaluna Road near the Lahainaluna Bridge. “It’s unbelievable, unbelievable.”
Most of the survivors who spoke to the Star-Advertiser live in — or lived in — large, multifamily homes and had to think for a moment how many people and families actually share or shared their homes.
Leo Ramelb, 53, has 11 people in his two-story house and agreed to use his driveway and garage off of Lahainaluna Road to distribute food, clothes, diapers, toilet paper and essentially anything a family that lost their homes needs right now — especially bottled water because tap water remains contaminated and unsafe to drink.
Ramelb said that grateful evacuees call the makeshift distribution center “a big hug.”
Like others, James Tanaka, 54, was focused on the fire off of Lunalilo Road, especially after Maui police officers drove around announcing on their loudspeakers, “Fire is coming, evacuate.”
Tanaka chose to stay with the home he has lived in with his wife, Cynthia, 53, for 33 years.
“We stayed and we just prayed,” he said.
But he could only watch in horror from the vantage point of his lanai as Lahaina Town — the community where he was born and raised — exploded in flames and darkness.
“It was heartbreaking,” he said.
Tanaka heard explosions, saw flying embers set roofs on fire before caving in, stalled vehicles packed in “like bumper cars” — and thought to himself, “I hope everyone got out.”
Not everyone did, of course, and Tanaka on Wednesday could not speak about those he suspects are dead.
After he paused, choked up, turned his face and began to cry, Tanaka said, “I just want to be strong for the ones that are not” dead.
Especially for his seven grandchildren — ages 3 to 14.
“They don’t know how to process it,” Tanaka said.
The mother of Ua Aloha Maji immediately came out of retirement as a registered nurse to volunteer at the Maui War Memorial evacuation center while Maji has volunteered with the American Red Cross.
At the same time Maji — who performs music at Maui resorts and works to instill Hawaiian cultural pride in children — works to counter widespread speculation among Native Hawaiians that disaster support from the federal, state and county governments are part of a larger conspiracy to take their land.
“There are way too much conspiracy theories,” he said. “Conspiracy theories kill people.”
Because the power was off on Aug. 7, Agamata-Pakele’s girlfriend, Jolene Villanueva, 24, took their children — daughter Xyra, 9, and son Kyson, 3 — with his Uncle Francis to stay in Kahului until the lights came back on and school began.
So he was alone at their home when the nearby Kahoma Villages subdivision began burning, Lahaina Town exploded, and the sky turned black.
He jumped into his 2010 “lifted” Toyota Tacoma truck around 4:30 p.m. to get to his parents’ home, normally a 10-minute drive mauka and upslope in Napili.
But there was traffic gridlock, no information, no sirens and no orders to evacuate, Agamata-Pakele said.
Some drivers who he captured images of on his cellphone were apparently unaware of the danger and were headed in the opposite direction toward Lahaina Town.
Agamata-Pakele went off road in his truck and began “four-wheeling it” to get moving and out of danger, he said.
Asked how long it took to reach his parents’ house 7 miles away, he paused to remember and said, “Hoh! A good hour and a half.”
Since then, so many thoughts go through his head — about surviving a fire that killed so many others, how his family can weather the economic struggles ahead and, in general, “what the future’s going to be like,” he said.
“To this day,” Agamata-Pakele said, “I can’t sleep.”
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