Fire threatens Maria Lanakila Church in Lahaina Aug. 24. (Photo courtesy of Jen Williams)
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
It was fire, not water, that caused the biggest Hurricane Lane-related damage on Maui.
Brushfires in West Maui, which started early on Aug. 24, quickly spread due to high winds caused by the storm. Dry ground cover after a spell of warm summer days didn’t help.
The Maui Fire Department reported that at least 2,000 acres, 22 structures and 30 vehicles burned.
Among the properties threatened by the fire were Maria Lanakila Parish and its parish school, Sacred Hearts School, in Lahaina, both of which had to be evacuated.
“We were just a road away from the school being on fire,” said Maria Lanakila’s parish secretary Mary Rosenthal said. “If the fire had jumped the highway, we would have been directly hit.”
Sacred Hearts School was already closed in anticipation of Hurricane Lane’s approach when the fire started on Aug. 24.
“We were all boarded up prepared for the hurricane and [a fire] wasn’t anything we thought of,” Rosenthal said.
The parish’s priests headed to Sacred Hearts Mission in Kapalua for most of the day Friday after being evacuated but were allowed to return that same evening. Firefighters contained the fire in the Lahaina area by Friday afternoon and the rest of the fires by Sunday.
Maria Lanakila’s regularly scheduled Masses were able to go ahead that weekend after a cleaning crew went through the church to clean up ash residue. But the Saturday vigil Mass was concluded in candlelight since area power remained out through early Sunday morning, said Rosenthal.
Sacred Hearts School’s kindergarten through eighth grade were off on Monday, Aug. 27, in order for parents and student volunteers to help the school staff clean up ash and other fire-related debris in classrooms and on school property. The school’s early learning center remained closed an additional day as ash had more easily gotten in through the classrooms’ louvered windows and required more extensive cleanup.
