Local Family Survives Maui Fires

By BOBBIE GREEN

The Progress

It was to be a wonderful family vacation to celebrate a grandson’s survival of brain tumor surgery: a week in a beachfront condo in Maui. But this trip to paradise didn’t turn out at all the way Mesquite residents Christina and Dennis Regan had envisioned.

The Regans were travelling with their 24-year-old son Shawn Regan, Christina’s brother-in-law Richard, another son Jeff, his wife Casie, and 10-year-old grandson John Long from Colorado. This small family group had no idea when they left just what they would face during their vacation.

After their safe return last week, Christina Regan sat down with The Progress to tell about their experience.
The group flew into Kahului Airport on Maui on August 7. Their reservation was for Puamana Resort on the beach in Lahaina. Check-in time was 4 pm.
“We went to Costco first for supplies,” Christina said in an interview last week. “We ate dinner in town and took a family picture under the historic banyan tree.”

About midnight that evening, the winds whipped up; part of a hurricane out in the Pacific. The lost electricity that night.

Things didn’t get better the next day. Christina said that the winds were gusting and trees were falling down. After a visit to the beach, they made a visit to a Safeway market because their food had been spoiled, she said.

“The grocery store was packed with people fighting over the food and loading up their carts,” Christina said. “I got a few things, but I gave up on the hotdogs I was trying to keep.”

Arriving back at the condo, Christina’s sons who had been outside came in to say that they thought something was on fire. They reported that there was a plume of black smoke.
“About then came a knock at the door and men said that we must evacuate right now,” Christina said. “I grabbed my purse and we all fled in our two vehicles.”

It took the family three hours to drive to Kailua on the packed freeway, normally a twenty-minute drive.
“It was worse behind us,” Christina said. “Power lines were falling and burning ash was landing on cars.”

A shelter set up at Maui High School was filled and there was no place to sleep. So the family slept in their cars for four nights.

Eventually, as emergency personnel opened other shelters further away, the family was able to get cots inside a shelter run by the Red Cross.

The traumatized young grandson who had been quite frightened, was finally able to relax a little.
“I was amazed at the generosity of the Hawaiian people,” Christina said. “They were donating clothing, undergarments, bathing suits, toiletries. They would come around even at night knock on our car windows bringing food, all home-made food, on top of what the Red Cross was providing. The local churches were taking in people also.”

Making the best of the horrifying situation, the family spent daytime hours at the beach with others from the shelter, trying to normalize things a bit for their frightened grandson.

On the 3rd day of their trip, the Regans’ two sons tried to go back to Lahaina, in hopes of retrieving some of their belongings.
“They said that they could see the fires from the road, and thought they could see the roof of our condo,” Christina said. “But they were turned back by the police.”

Christina added that a couple who had plane tickets home went to the airport hoping to make their. But it was so packed with people they could not get to the gate and they missed their flight.

So Christina’s family decided not to try and get an earlier flight out. They would just wait until their scheduled return time on Aug. 14.

The Regans did their best to help while they were there, Christina said. They helped to set up cots and deliver food and water to the elderly people at the shelter who were not very mobile.
“It was a bad experience, but also a good one,” Christina said. “We met nice people, made new friends, and learned to appreciate the things we have.”

Christina said that the stories of suffering and death in Lahaina were harrowing. She spoke to others at the shelter what had resorted to extreme measures to get away from the fast-moving flames in Lahaina.
“They had to jump over a five-foot sea wall to get into the ocean water and escape the fire,” she said. “Some of the people who were with them drowned. There was steam, and there was fire on the water.”

Christina recounted the sad story about emergency responders finding the body of a man lying on top of his dog trying to protect it. They both had been burned.

Regan said she does not understand why the siren alarms were not used. “It would have saved lives,” she said.

Christina spoke to many of the local there who were suspicious of how the fire started. They would not believe any explanation that given by the government on the cause of the catastrophe.
“I think the police did the best that they could with the resources that they had at the time,” Christina said. “They had to fly other help in. The National Guard came in to help as well.”
Regan said that when all was over, she had asked her grandson what the difficult week had taught him. His response was, “That I am very lucky!”