If you're sailing towards Lahaina now, what was once a vibrant paradise is now a humbling feast of devastation. "Puamana has been wiped off the map!" exclaims a stunned crewmember, referencing the once bustling tourist resort on the western shores of Maui that was recently consumed by ravenous wildfires.
What remains is a desolate landscape scarred by destructive flames. Hundred-foot tall coconut trees bear the scorch marks up their full height, remnants of the fierce fire that blazed through. Disembarking presents further challenges - many of the ferry boats have been incinerated and now lurk as submerged hazards in the water. The harbor floats with a vile soup of plastics, pipes, and fiberglass from melted boats, causing a putrid aroma to fill the air.
Once ashore, the beloved, quaint town of Lahaina appears unrecognizable. Stretching block after block, all that can be seen is ash. Concrete and stone structures stubbornly stand in places, although it's tough to identify their original purpose. The Pioneer Inn, a historic edifice dating back to 1901 and the oldest hotel in Hawaii, is completely decimated. Even structures erected on pilings over the Pacific Ocean have been reduced to cinders, suggesting the intensity of the wildfire that raged, fed by hurricane winds.
On the roads, burnt husks of cars lay abandoned. Survivors recount their horror stories of gridlocked traffic while blazes advanced, forcing some to leap into the ocean in their quest for safety. Yet, with hellish flames on one side and perilous waves, a diesel spill, and a reef on the other, the ocean offered no real refuge.
One survivor, gallery owner Bill Wyland, tells eyewitnesses that he escaped the inferno on his Harley Davidson motorbike, bypassing the gridlock by riding on the sidewalk. “Flames were shooting over the top coming at you, I didn’t even want to look behind me because I knew they were behind me,” he recalled painfully. On his return, he discovered his gallery and the artworks housed within were incinerated. Amid the ruins, he uncovered a tiny beacon of hope. A banyan tree, a town landmark for the past 150 years, was singed but still standing. “I'm telling you, it's going to survive,” he affirmed.
Wyland also shared his belief that a new Lahaina - possibly even better than before - can rise from the ashes, while also acknowledging that a part of the Hawaiian Kingdom's history had been forever erased.
Others, such as farmer Eddy Garcia, were more focused on the immediate aftermath. “It moved so fast, it happened so fast,” he recounted, still visibly shocked at the speed at which the fire had spread. He offered his farmland as temporary accommodation for the now homeless and urged others to assist however they possibly could from a distance.
“Every single home in Lahaina is gone,” he stated with finality. "It's apocalyptic."
