News reports have shown the devastation of wildfires burning through parts of Hawaii. For a Great Falls family, a vacation turned to terror, literally overnight because of those fires.
MTN’s Chet Layman spoke with Great Falls resident John Bootilier from near Lahaina, a community completely destroyed by those wildfires.
Boutilier says the fires started at the worst time. Hurricane warnings were on everyone’s mind, but he says in the tropics no one ever thinks about wildfires.
“Tuesday night it was actually not too bad. You could see some things developing and then we all started waking up at about 3 AM on Wednesday morning to a bunch of people calling and texting. Then you could start seeing the smoke was developing,” Boutilier said. “Where we were was six miles south of Lahaina and then you could start hearing and see what was happening. Yesterday was pretty well shut off. We all had to go north or south of Lahaina.”
Hurricane Dora's winds are fanning the blaze. In the end, much of Lahaina is destroyed but Boutilier says he thinks it will come back.
“It will take years to recover, rebuild, but you can already tell, they’re going to rebuild and that’s their goal,” Boutilier said. “But you’re right, 200 plus years of history in Lahaina is gone. All the boats were gone so there’s definitely a lot of activity that’s been devastation.”
Boutilier says they aren’t planning to leave just yet, but many are trying to. 36 people have been killed by the fire and thousands left homeless. Those numbers could continue to climb.
