Former St. Albert resident Holly Raubenheimer and her family of four are among the thousands of Hawaiians who lost their homes when the city of Lahaina was largely destroyed by fire earlier this month.
As of Aug. 16, the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was reporting the fire's death toll had reached 111, while as many as 1,300 people were still considered unaccounted for. Lahaina's population as of the 2020 census was 13,216.
Raubenheimer has lived in Hawaii for four years, but only called Lahaina home since last November; however, her partner Goodreau and his two sons have lived in Lahaina for decades.
When the fire engulfed the city on Tuesday, Aug. 8, Raubenheimer and Goodreau were actually in Traverse City, Mich., celebrating Goodreau's grandfather's 100th birthday, but Goodreau's teenage sons were home.
“I'm luckier than most because I packed a bag without knowing that a fire was coming for me,” Raubenheimer said, adding she was lucky to have things like her passport and other necessities.
“Tuesday morning (the oldest son) calls us and he's all freaked out,” she said. “He's like, ‘I just had the worst night, the wind's blowing so crazy, and the house was so hot.’”
“I now know based on my phone that it was like 4:36 p.m. that he called us again, and now he's like super freaked out and he's like, ‘There's a really big fire, Lahaina's on fire, and (the door to) our house (won't stay shut).’”
Raubenheimer, a furniture maker and carpenter, told him to drill a piece of wood over the door and head to a family friend's house, located slightly up the West Maui Mountains which overlook Lahaina.
“If we hadn't spoken to (him) exactly when we had, we would have lost signal for days,” she said.
From the friend's house up the mountain, in the neighbourhood of Kaanapali, Goodreau's oldest watched as the fire went through Lahaina, destroying more than 2,000 structures, over 80 per cent of which were residential, including the family's home.
Raubenheimer and Goodreau then had to take three flights to get back to Hawaii, but based on media reports prior to getting home, Raubenheimer said they knew what to expect.
“When we drove in that day, we were able to stop at our house because we looked up the road and our landlord was there. So, we immediately pulled over, jumped the barricades, ran to her and there were six different structures on the piece of property that we lived on... and two (other families) were there in that moment, so we all just hugged and cried and helped each other try to find some special things that maybe we thought we wanted immediately,” she said.
In the days following their return, and for the foreseeable future, the family is staying with friends and determining next steps, such as trying to enrol the boys in a new high school.
Raubenheimer said one of the few schools left standing is a small private school that usually only operates with one classroom per grade level. Given the school's size, there's now a wait list with a few hundred children on it, and the community is trying to raise funds to sponsor kids' attendance at the private school.
“We're so blessed, and we are so privileged, and the fact that I'm even able to stand up straight right now is because everybody in my life is safe,” she said. “It doesn't mean that we we all don't get out without suffering, everybody's affected by this.”
“Every part of my life, every way that I walked through my day, is gone, and it's instant.”
Raubenheimer said that while the family is living day by day, they have no plans of leaving Lahaina as both she and Goodreau, a carpenter, still have their jobs and are able to keep working.
“Ryan and I still have our jobs and we can stay here and we can help, and we can actually help our community.”
