Lahaina victims mourned as search continues ‘until all are found’

WAILUKU >> No new names since Tuesday have been added to list of those known to have died in the Aug. 8 Lahaina wildfire, but the slow, methodical process of identifying the 115 individuals recovered so far continues.

The Maui Police Department has released the names of 55 of the fatalities, with six others identified but whose relatives have yet to be notified.

On Aug. 29, Maui County reported that 100% of the 5-square-mile burn zone had been surveyed by specialized search and recovery teams. Officials said that all the recognizable human remains to be found had been recovered, leaving in doubt whether the true number of people killed in the inferno that destroyed over 2,200 structures, most of them residences, will ever be known.

Officials added that efforts to recover and identify bone fragments and other partial remains will be ongoing as the ruins of Lahaina are cleared.

Since Thursday, the county’s daily fire update has reported that 99% of the disaster area had been searched. When asked about the discrepancy, a county Joint Information Center spokesperson said, “We backed it up to 99% because the government (Federal Emergency Management Agency, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Maui County …) will always be looking. There are still those that are unaccounted for. It will remain at 99% until all are found. The search for those unaccounted for will continue.”

The FBI and MPD on Friday released a vetted list of 66 persons still unaccounted-for in the wake of the deadly fire and are seeking information on scores of others who were included on a much longer list released the previous week.

MPD has yet to officially acknowledge the death of Kirk Carter, 44, of Lahaina, who died Aug. 15 at Straub Medical Center’s Burn Unit in Honolulu. The department did not respond to Honolulu Star-Advertiser requests last week asking why Carter’s name has not been added to the list of fatalities, even though the Honolulu Medical Examiner confirmed his identity and notified his family almost a month ago. MPD also did not respond to a request to clarify whether Carter is included in its wildfire death toll of 115.

MEANWHILE, the families and friends of those who died in the Lahaina fire are struggling to deal with that knowledge, along with their own losses.

Davilynn Severson recalls saying goodbye to her uncle, David Nuesca Jr., 59, on Aug. 8 as she departed from their longtime family home on Malolo Place. Both her husband and 4-year-old daughter suffer from bad asthma, she said, and they wanted to leave before the smoke from the wildfire worsened.

Four generations of their extended family lived in two homes on a property that was built by her grandparents.

“Everything happened so fast, as everyone knows in Lahaina. That fire was definitely devastating,” said Severson, 32. “But that was our third fire that we fought in Lahaina. Including myself, we didn’t think this fire was going to turn out to be that way.

“The last conversation that I had with my uncle was, ‘I‘ll see you later.’”

Before they left, Nuesca tried to reassure his niece that everything would be OK.

“My uncle said, ‘Nah, no worries; not going come down here.’

“I’m not sure what my uncle’s last words would have been, but what I believe, when I talk about my uncle, is definitely he would’ve just stayed with the house.”

Nuesca’s name was released Aug. 27 by MPD as one of the 115 Lahaina wildfire fatalities.

The happy-go-lucky Nuesca was raised in Kahana and Lahaina, Severson said. In his younger years he paddled for Kahana Canoe Club in a dominating crew known as the “egg-­beaters,” because “they were untouchable,” according to his niece.

“As a brother, an uncle, and grand-uncle, he was always willing to give anything he had, especially to the kids, and lived the simple life of enjoying each day and each other’s company.”

Eleven other family members escaped Lahaina safely and for now are living in different locations, adding to their sadness and grief. Severson and her husband and daughter received a voucher to stay in a Kihei Airbnb unit but will have to move Sept. 27, she said.

“It just sucks and it’s sad that we’re all kind of scattered, because there’s not really a place that can hold all of us at once, and we do have a couple dogs,” she said. “So it’s frustrating and hard to find help and hope.”

Anyone wishing to assist the family may donate directly to them through her mother’s @cganer Venmo account.

RETIRED FISHING charter captain John “Thumper” McCarthy, 74, was a fixture at the Lahaina Yacht Club on Front Street.

“He greeted everyone with a personal greeting, loved to see people, loved to be around everybody,” said Dave Schubert, yacht club commodore. “To be fair, Front Street has probably been his life longer than the eight years I’ve known him, whether he was at the yacht club or whether he used to go Pi Artisan (Pizzeria), or on days we weren’t open even the Lahaina Fish Co. He had a little scooter for the last couple of years and would go up and down the street. He knew everybody.”

To celebrate his 70th birthday, Schubert said an impromptu parade was held with McCarthy sitting in the back of a convertible cruising up and down Front Street accompanied by honking horns.

Friends previously had rallied around McCarthy last summer with a GoFundMe fundraiser to help with his recovery after a fall that affected his mobility.

Originally from Newport Beach, Calif., his remains were found at his home off Front Street. MPD released McCarthy’s name Sept. 3.

“The outpouring over the weeks of uncertainly when we didn’t know, we were getting phone calls, messages and emails from the mainland asking, ‘How’s Thumper?’ We was extremely well-known and extremely missed,” Schubert said. “We’re missing a huge part of our yacht club.”

The venerable Lahaina Yacht Club also lost its 58-year-old clubhouse in the fire. The club has 800 members, including 400 on Maui, and hosts the biennial Vic-Maui Yacht Race, first contested in 1965, from Victoria, British Columbia, to Lahaina.

Losses included boats used in the club’s popular summer sailing classes for youngsters, according to Schubert, who lost his home in the fire, escaping the flames with his girlfriend with only 20 minutes to spare.

The yacht club’s auxiliary group has been making checks of members and staff, and so far McCarthy is the only one known to have died in the fire. A relief fund has been set up to assist employees, about a dozen of whom lost their homes, at www.lyc.us.

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Finding ohana

>> A validated list of names of those unaccounted for is available at mauipolice.com. If you recognize a name on the list and know the person to be safe, or if you have additional information about the person that may help locate them, call the FBI at 888-814-7693 or visit fbi.gov/MauiFires.

>> To file a missing persons report, call the Maui Police Department at 808-244-6400 or email unaccounted@mpd.net.

>> Immediate family members (parent, sibling or child) may provide a DNA sample by calling 808-270-7771. Immediate family members who live outside Maui should contact the FBI at 888-814-7693 or visit fbi.gov/MauiFires. DNA samples are only for identification of wildfire victims and survivors, and will not be stored or used for any other purpose.