It was confirmed that there was a residential complex for the elderly with 34 households in the Hawaii wildfire disaster area, raising the possibility that many of the elderly here were sacrificed.
Sanford Hill (72), a surviving resident of the Hale Mahaolu Eono, a senior living complex in Lahaina, Maui Island, Hawaii, said in an interview with NBC News on the 16th, “There is no way to know which of the neighbours survived. “
Hill said he knew of only three people who had escaped from the 34-unit complex, and that even with news of other survivors, the whereabouts of only a few were confirmed. He also called the company that owns the residential complex, but said he only heard “no information” from the staff.
He said that when the fire broke out in Lahaina on the 8th, there was no evacuation warning, so all residents, including himself, were unaware of the dangerous situation. He stayed home for half a day on the 8th and watched firefighters extinguish a fire in the east of town, but said it was nothing serious at the time.
The building’s manager went around telling the tenants that they “might have to evacuate,” but then word spread that the fire was under control, and the firefighters left. He went out to see his scheduled dental appointment. “I wasn’t worried, nobody was worried,” he recalled. “Everyone was at home, nobody was evacuated.” On the way back from the dentist’s office, he saw black smoke billowing toward Lahaina from the east side of town, and as he drove toward the house, he met a woman who hurriedly ran off the road on foot. This woman, she said, said the town was burning, and Hill managed to survive by getting this woman in her car and driving her out of town.
Hill stayed at the shelter the next day, stayed overnight in a hotel, and moved to temporary accommodation in Kihei. He said he had been homeless and moved into this senior living complex in Lahaina in 2016. It is said that this complex was popular for its low rent of $144 per month. Hill was able to live comfortably by paying the monthly rent of the house with a monthly social security allowance of 914 dollars. However, he was worried that this house disappeared overnight, and he was at a loss as to how he would be able to find it in the future. He also expressed his anger at the authorities for not issuing an alert for a fire, which had been completely unprepared for the fire before.
Families of other elderly people who lived in the complex are also struggling. Clifford Abihai, from California looking for the 98-year-old grandmother, has searched for shelters and put-up missing flyers, but has not received any information. “All I want is confirmation that her grandmother is okay,” he said.
Daniel Yakut, who is looking for her 90-year-old grandmother, was also frustrated, saying, “We can’t go in (the site), we can’t look for it.” Buddy Zantok, 79, one of the first two deaths disclosed by Hawaii authorities the day before, was also said to have lived in the senior living complex.