‘We’re just numb’: Idaho man living on Maui stunned by wildfire’s destruction

LAHAINA, Hawaii — When he saw the smoke rising above Maui on Aug. 7, Bill Scott says he wasn’t too worried. What he didn’t realize at the time was that several factors were combining into a “perfect storm” that would send a catastrophic wildfire sweeping across the island on Tuesday.

Scott moved to Maui from Idaho Falls 10 years ago. He is a partner in Hawaii Sea Spirits, a distillery situated on 80 acres between the north and south shores of Maui.

“Idaho was my home for the first 50 years of my life,” he tells EastIdahoNews.com, “but this is home now.”

To truly understand what happened last week, Scott says you have to go further back to before the fires even started.

“We had a Category 4 hurricane about 600 miles south of the island chain, which created a huge low-pressure system,” he says. “And then our normal trade winds … come from the north/north-east, and they’re driven by the cooler water north of us and high pressure … and it just made for some really high winds.”

The National Weather Service recorded winds at almost 70 mph. Scott says the islands are used to having “pretty brisk” winds — about 40 or 45 mph.

But even with the high winds, Monday wasn’t too worrying, he says.

“We heard the fires were going on … we saw the reports of the road closures. We just kind of went on about our day and were just keeping our eye on the fires around us.”

‘Things got scary’

On Tuesday evening, Scott says there were sending employees home so they could tend to their homes and families, many of whom were being evacuated.

“Tuesday evening, things got scary,” he recalls. “We started to see some smoke near our property line. And that was the start of the Pulehu Fire.”

The Pulehu Fire would eventually burn through central Maui. Fueled by a dry summer and those strong winds, the fire raced through parched brush and grasslands covering the island.

“It got extremely big, really fast,” Scott remembers, saying the fire “took off” toward south Maui. “We watched it burn maybe six to seven miles in less than an hour. It was incredible how fast that fire moved,” he says.

The firefighters, he says, “fought very well” and saved the distillery’s farm and buildings from going up in flames. Neighbors also helped in the efforts. One,in particular, played a big part in keeping the fire at bay.

“He owns an excavation company,” Scott says. “He set every piece of equipment he had to (the fire) and was able to push it back.”

‘Devastating’

The Pulehu/Kīhei Fire was declared 100 percent contained on Saturday, according to the County of Maui. But the news from Lahaina has been “devastating,” Scott says.

The cultural, religious and historical capital of the Hawaiian people lays in ashes, almost completely destroyed. Search and rescue efforts in the area are ongoing, with the death toll rising every day.

RELATED | Hawaii’s historic city Lahaina devastated by wildfire

“The numbers just keep getting scarier every day,” Scott says. “This was home for people, not just bed and breakfasts and that sort of thing.”

He says his employees had “some very close calls,” but everybody is safe.

Maui Police Department reported the number of confirmed deaths was 106 on Tuesday, according to Maui County. Officials are calling for residents to donate DNA to help with the identification process.

“We’re walking around kind of numb right now,” Scott says. “We don’t know how to react. There are people they haven’t heard from yet. This island is one big family. … There is a lot of worry and a lot of sadness.”

When asked if Maui’s famous alert system should have been used, Scott says he thinks it would have added to the confusion.

“That’s mainly a tsunami alert,” he says. “If that had gone off, I would have immediately gone into tsunami mode. People hear that alert and think, ‘How close am I to the coast and how can I move inland?'”

That, he says, is exactly what people shouldn’t have been doing that day.

“I don’t know if it was a moment of indecision — or maybe a decision — but it might not have been helpful (to sound the alarm),” he says. “But that’s just one guy’s opinion.”

The National Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other aid organizations are on hand, Scott says. For the most part, locals are trying to stay out of the professionals’ way and let them do their jobs. However, he knows the community is already starting to pull together to help where they can.

RELATED | FEMA, partners providing critical aid to Hawaii

One man Scott talked to was joining local trucking companies to deliver supplies.

“They had just bought Costco out of bottled water and diapers and things like that, so we know that the local (response) is going on,” Scott says, but he notes that “things are overwhelming” right now.

Watch video of the fire near the distillery in the video player above. Note that there is some strong language in the video.