COURTESY OF KEEAUMOKU KAPU
Scorched brush surrounded a pumphouse, foreground, and the Kapu family property in Kauaula Valley above Lahaina yesterday after a brush fire on Monday. While the Kapus' house did not burn, one home was destroyed and another family's two tents were burned. CLICK FOR LARGE
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Response to Maui fire criticized by evacuees
Families escaping a brush fire say too little was done to try to protect their homes
Uilani Kapu of Kauaula Valley on Maui said her family almost didn't make it out of their home threatened by a fast-moving brush fire Monday.
"The flames were already around our house" when her husband Keeaumoku, three sons, daughter and her boyfriend and a family dog were airlifted out of Kauaula Valley, she said yesterday.
Kapu said she was at work and called the fire department when she realized the fire was heading toward their home. She said she wonders why no firetrucks were there to protect her house and the other valley homes.
"If I didn't call them, I wouldn't have my family, because nobody even bothered to check on them," she said.
While the Kapus' house did not burn, one home was destroyed and another family's two tents went up in flames in the fire above Lahaina.
The 14 or so families of Kauaula Valley clung to one another for help and strength yesterday, grateful no lives were lost.
COURTESY OF MAUI FIRE DEPT.
This aerial photo shows the area covered by the fire. CLICK FOR LARGE
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Firefighters, along with state Department of Land and Natural Resources personnel, continued to douse hot spots last night in the area of the brush fire that began Sunday above the Puamana subdivision and burned more than 1,000 acres of former sugar cane fields.
Yolanda Dizon said her cousin Winnie Aquino's house "burned to the ground," while her nephew, who had just moved to the area with his girlfriend and two babies, lost two tents with all their belongings.
Dizon, who was watering down her property last night, also criticized the fire department for not trying to protect their homes Monday.
"We're taking care of each other because the bottom line is this: The fire didn't have to get totally out of control the way it did.
"They weren't even concerned about us," she said. "They were more concerned with saving those million-dollar homes" of the Puamana subdivision, closer to the ocean.
"It could have been contained. ... We were, like, expendable," she said.
The Dizon and Aquino families live below the Kapus, who live at the top of the valley.
Maui Deputy Fire Chief Neal Bal said he could not comment on the allegations until he talked to those in the field.
The fire also entered the fringe of the Panaewa section of the West Maui Natural Area Reserve system, home to rare and endangered species of plants, officials said.
