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- Hawaii wildfires: The red Lahaina house that survived Maui fires
- Hawaii lawmakers take aim at vacation rentals after Lahaina wildfire worsens Maui housing crisis
- Native Hawaiian neighborhood survived Maui fire. Lahaina locals praise its cultural significance
- A mother raced to save her son from the Maui fires. She couldn't reach him
- Bon Jovi’s Wife Skips Premiere After His Candid Confession
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The latter is what likely made the biggest difference in the house's ability to withstand the flames, Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at the Stanford Wood Institute for the Environment, told Civil Beat. There, too, they also unknowingly improved the property’s odds of survival, having lined the ground with stones up to the drip line of the roof, and cut down foliage that was up against the outside walls. One decision that may have unknowingly helped it survive the wildfire — the deadliest in the US in more than a century — was replacing the asphalt roof with one made out of heavy-gauge metal, she told the LA paper. There are many questions about when residents of the worst-hit parts of Lahaina might be able to come and survey what's left of their community. From some 5,000 miles away, he got live updates from his friends who were on the ground, watching their neighborhood be destroyed.
Hawaii wildfires: The red Lahaina house that survived Maui fires
How did the 'red house' survive the Lahaina fire? - Los Angeles Times
How did the 'red house' survive the Lahaina fire?.
Posted: Fri, 18 Aug 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Homeowners Trip Millikin and Dora Atwater Millikin told the local outlet Honolulu Civil Beat they purchased the property in 2021. As the Maui wildfires blazed through the town of Lahaina, Hawaii this month, the inferno created a trail of destruction and devastation, but it stopped short of one single home. Even the most well-prepared homes can still catch fire from neighboring structures, experts say.
Hawaii lawmakers take aim at vacation rentals after Lahaina wildfire worsens Maui housing crisis
It appears that combustibles were largely removed from the under-deck area, and the ember exposure of the deck was lessened because it faces the ocean, he said. The situation is all too real, said Dora Atwater Millikin, who owns the house with her husband. It's not clear how much the efforts of Saribay and others contributed to the neighborhood's survival. Archie Kalepa sees the survival of Leiali’i as a testament to the resilience of the Hawaiian people — “the root and soul of this place” — and the need to find ways for Hawaiians to prosper despite Hawaii’s crushingly high cost of living. It’s not clear how much the efforts of Saribay and others contributed to the neighborhood’s survival. Those with at least 50% Hawaiian blood can apply for a 99-year lease for $1 a year.
Native Hawaiian neighborhood survived Maui fire. Lahaina locals praise its cultural significance
"I'm probably coming home in a couple of weeks, or when I can," Millikin said, adding, "I can't stay at my house." All of them, he added, should feel proud that the house is still standing — and they should know they're welcome to return when they can. The list also includes Harry, he said, who by virtue of his work on the house's roof has the right to park at the house and go surfing any time he wants to. "It's so horrifying because this is just the most wonderful community of people. Everybody knows everybody, everybody works together, it's a community."

A mother raced to save her son from the Maui fires. She couldn't reach him
Civil Beat is a small nonprofit newsroom that provides free content with no paywall. He went to bed feeling physically ill out of fear for the fate of his friends, his neighborhood, and his home. Millikin, who was on a trip to Massachusetts during the Lahaina fire, said the last he heard from his immediate neighbor on Aug. 8 was that the whole neighborhood was burning and his home was unlikely to make it.
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They lined the ground with stones up to the drip line of the roof, which overhangs by 36 to 40 inches. Images of the red roofed house have gone viral on social media and survivors of the tragedy are marvelling at the miraculous occurrence. Some social media users have nicknamed the structure as ‘The Red House That Survived Hawaii Wild Fires’.
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There are about 29,000 people on a waitlist for 99-year residential or agricultural land leases. The house was pretty rundown when the Millikins bought it, so they decided to renovate it and preserve a piece of Lahaina history, the Civil Beat reported. The truth is that less than 1% of our monthly readers are financial supporters. To remain a viable business model for local news, we need a higher percentage of readers-turned-donors.
His group connected garden hoses and he broke down a homesteader's fence to keep the fire out of the community, he said. Although Native Hawaiians including Saribay live throughout Lahaina, the Villages of Leiali’i is the only community in West Maui exclusively for Hawaiians. Hours of makeshift firefighting with garden hoses and buckets of water across Lahaina didn't stop flames from consuming his house, his rental properties and thousands of other structures in his beloved hometown. Notably, the wildfires in Lahaina were aggravated by strong winds caused by Hurricane Dora. The tragedy is reportedly the worst wildfire disaster in the United States in more than a century. US President Joe Biden had declared the wildfires in Hawaii as a "major disaster".
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The tragedy would have been compounded if the homestead burned, too, Kalepa said. Keola Beamer, a famous slack key guitarist who lives in Leiali’i, found significance in the neighborhood’s name. Most residents had evacuated as wind-whipped fire spread from the hillsides and surrounded the neighborhood, which is one of the newer subdivisions developed by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. Atwater Millikin told The Los Angeles Times that she doesn't quite understand why the home was spared, but she thinks it might have something to do with how they renovated it. That all helps ensure there's no fuel for any embers to ignite if they drift to your house. Experts say this red-roofed home offers a crucial lesson in wildfire safety.
“People generally think that it’s a big wall of flames that is catching houses on fire, but often the mechanism is embers,” she said. The owner of a red-roofed house in Maui that went viral for remaining untouched by the historic wildfires has explained the small, unexpected details that she thinks helped it survive in a neighborhood otherwise reduced to ash. The couple, who was visiting family in Massachusetts when the fire started, had recently renovated the home, but not with the express goal of hardening it against flames. Before fires ripped through Lahaina, the craftsman-inspired home at 271 Front St. didn’t stand out much in the neighborhood. The nearly 100-year-old structure had been lovingly restored in recent years, but it was one of many charming homes lining the waterfront of one of Hawaii’s most historically important towns.
MAUI, Hawaii — When an inferno tore through Lahaina on the island of Maui, it reduced a historic and charming town to ash and rubble. But the fire left a red-roofed house seemingly untouched by the devastation around it. Just two of the neighborhood's 104 homes were lost to the fire, an immense relief amid a disaster that destroyed more than 2,000 buildings and killed at least 97 people. Many of the homesteaders have taken in friends and relatives who lost homes nearby.
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