The Maui Fires In Photos: April 2024
King Kamehameha III Elementary School students started class at their new temporary campus in Kapalua. The Maui County Council got to work on next year’s budget. The permanent landfill site for the Aug. 8 fire debris hit a snag. Cleanup work continued. And group housing sites are being developed in Lahaina.
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Retired King Kamehameha III Elementary School teacher Rebecca Wimmer welcomed students to the school’s temporary Pulelehua campus April 1 near the Kapalua Airport. The original building burned in the Aug. 8 Lahaina fire. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2024)
People held signs to greet students at the new temporary Pulelehua campus of King Kamehameha III Elementary School. The Department of Education says hosting students at the West Maui site could cost over $100 million. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2024)
Roughly 350 students are attending the temporary Pulelehua campus of King Kamehameha III Elementary School. Its total capacity is 600. FEMA is expected to pick up 90% of the school’s cost. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2024)
The DOE can operate the temporary Pulelehua campus until 2029, when the 30 modular classrooms for the elementary school must be removed to return the land to its original state. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2024)
In early April, the DOE had yet to pick a location to build a permanent new campus for King Kamehameha III Elementary School, which was destroyed in the August Lahaina wildfire. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2024)
Col. Eric Swenson, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recovery field office commander, welcomed students to the temporary Pulelehua campus. The Corps built the campus is 95 days. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2024)
Maui County Council member Yuki Lei Sugimura is leading the long process to review, amend and adopt Mayor Richard Bissen’s proposed $1.7 billion budget for fiscal year 2025, which starts July 1. The council held numerous meetings throughout April as they scrutinized each department’s budget. (Cammy Clark/Civil Beat/2024)
Maria Zielinski, left, was confirmed as the county’s next finance director. She replaces Scott Teruya, not pictured, who was put on paid leave in February without a public explanation. Steve Tesoro, center, is deputy finance director and Marcy Martin, right, is the real property tax administrator. (Cammy Clark/Civil Beat/2024)
Randy Dadez and his family, who lost their Lahaina home in the Aug. 8 fires, were still stuck in housing limbo in April, living out of government-funded hotel rooms while waiting on a longer term solution. Here he’s tuning the strings on his 9-year-old son Kobe’s ukulele. (Brittany Lyte/Civil Beat/2024)
The Dadez family’s pet fish Bubbles perished in the Aug. 8 fire, something Marilou Dadez says her kids still blame her for since they had wanted to take the aquarium with them when they evacuated. The family recently acquired a new pet fish, which Kobe Dadez named Boss. (Brittany Lyte/Civil Beat/2024)
Andy Baden, executive vice president and general counsel of Komar Investments, showed the property they own next to the Central Maui Landfill that Maui County plans to acquire through eminent domain to use as the permanent site of the Lahaina fire debris. (Cammy Clark/Civil Beat/2024)
Maui County turned down Komar’s offer to donate 5 acres of the 20-acre parcel the company owns next to the landfill. Instead, a legal battle has begun over the use of eminent domain to take enough acreage to accommodate the estimated 400,000 cubic yards of fire debris. (Cammy Clark/Civil Beat/2024)
Ron Proctor played Santa Claus for 12 years in Lahaina until his home burned down Aug. 8. In April, he joined the untold number of fire survivors moving to the mainland. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2023)
Despite trying to stay on Maui, Ron Proctor returned to family in Napa, California. Researchers predict about 2,300 people, or 1.4% of the county’s total population, will move by the end of 2024. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2024)
multimedia The Army Corps of Engineers marked 100 days of clearing fire debris in Lahaina on April 26. There’s no out-of-pocket cost for homeowners to take advantage of the program to prepare their properties for rebuilding. (Nathan Eagle/Civil Beat/2024)
The Army Corps of Engineers reported that it had cleared 800 of roughly 1,600 Lahaina properties as of late April. The Corps has also removed over 1,900 vehicles destroyed by the Aug. 8 fire. (Nathan Eagle/Civil Beat/2024)
Maui Fire Chief Brad Ventura, left, and Assistant Chief Jeff Giesea discussed their department’s after-action report of its performance during the Aug. 8 wildfires at a press conference at the Kula Fire Station. The report made 111 recommendations, detailing a need for more equipment and better land management. (Cammy Clark/Civil Beat/2024)
Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez shared the first of three reports from the state’s investigation into the fires. It revealed a comprehensive timeline of government responses to the Aug. 8 fires and how they spread in Lahaina, Upcountry and South Maui. (David Croxford/CivilBeat/2024)
Duane Sparkman from Treecovery, Bill Countryman, general manager of Marriott’s Maui Open Club, and Matthew Murasco, an entrepreneur and product designer, stood near a cutting from the historic Lahaina banyan tree at the hotel. An effort is underway to grow thousands of trees at several hubs to be planted in the burn zone when it’s ready. (David Croxford/Civil Beat/2024)
Duane Sparkman, chair of the Maui County Arborist Committee, cofounded the nonprofit tree-growing and reforestation organization called Treecovery Hawaii that aims to provide every owner of burned property in Lahaina and Kula with fruit trees free of charge when they are ready to rebuild their homes. (David Croxford/Civil Beat/2024)
Senate Ways and Means Chair Donovan Dela Cruz, left, and House Finance Chair Kyle Yamashita led state budget negotiations in April, ending with lawmakers approving two bills with over $800 million in state and federal spending dedicated to Maui’s fire recovery. (David Croxford/Civil Beat/2024)
