Nearly a year on from a fire which devastated the town of Lahaina on Maui in the Hawaiian islands, locals go about rebuilding their lives and their town.
Most Fridays, Mia and Jay Magbual have a food stall selling Hawaiian and Filipino homemade dishes in a carpark near the Lahaina Cannery Mall.
Jay is a chef at a local school and Mia is a family success coach here in Lahaina
Both Mia and Jay remember that fateful day when the deadly fire hit, both losing people they knew.
“It’s just really unfortunate that it happened and it impacted so many people. So many lives that will never get back,” says Mia
“My cousin’s father passed. We do hula hālau and we lost our guitarist. A lot of the elderly couldn’t make it out.”
Described as the deadliest US wildfire in more than a century, the town of Lahaina on the island of Maui in Hawaii, was decimated by fire on August 8 last year.
The first of three reports released in April 2024 from the Fire Safety Research Institute, stated that
a number of factors contributed to that fateful day.
The first fire was sparked when a live powerline snapped and hit dry bush.
Unusually strong winds fuelled the torrent of flames that eventually leaped from street to street, with no mercy destroying everything in its path.
In all, 101 people lost their lives.
It’s been almost 12 months since the fire and the township of Lahaina is now going about it’s daily business as best it can.
But the visible damage the deadly fire caused is everywhere.
The Lahaina waterfront is destroyed and the surrounding neighbourhoods are now blocked out with green and black screens, but through the gaps you can still see the remains of rubble and dirt where there once stood homes and businesses.
Neighbourhoods that survived the fire are cordoned off with tight security.
The trauma still very raw, with handmade signs visible everywhere asking tourist and the public to not enter their neighbourhood as they are still grieving
Following the fire those who lost family and friends set up a memorial on the Lahaina bypass as a tribute to those who perished.
“My mom actually made red and white ribbon leis up over a month after it happened. It’s just sad all around, you know? It could have been prevented,” says Mia.
Many feel that they have been taken advantage of since the fire, especially with the high costs and rent hikes due to a shortage of homes for locals.
“It’s still like a touchy subject for a lot of people. The cost of living here you know skyrocketed,” Jay says.
Many in the community want the town to be rebuilt back to the old township, when King Kamehameha II once ruled. A time when Lahaina was surrounded by wetlands.
“My hope is that the state and federal entities will listen to the people of Lahaina.
“Restore it to its natural habitat (so) that there won’t be brown, dry mountainsides, that they’ll be able to grow, you know, to catch the water and restoring the water to the rightful places,” says Mia.
New life is emerging and the rebuild is taking shape.
Lahaina’s iconic banyan tree that stands in the grounds of the Old Lahaina Courthouse, is now sprouting new leaves and, like many in the community, Mia is hoping it’s sign the rebuild will benefit the Hawaiian community.
“Lahaina was the first capital before Honolulu and it’s very sacred. So, to be able to restore the historical and traditional activities that were down here…
“The cultural knowledge and history, it shouldn’t be forgotten. For the sake of development, you know, or tourism, they really need to look at the locals because without locals, there’s no more Hawaiians.”
