Wildfires roaring through Maui have created the equivalent of a war zone, said a man who grew up in Portland and now calls the Hawaiian island home.
Steve Barr, 38, struggled to find the right words during a Friday phone interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive. He did his best to convey what the photographs and live television feeds fail to do.
“I’ll start by calling it surreal,” he said.
He stopped.
“No.”
He paused.
“OK,” he finally said. “Look, I’ve never been in the military. But [war] has got to be like this. Nothing but explosions, I mean big ones. One after the other, mushroom clouds in the sky, smoke and fire.”
And death.
On Friday authorities said at least 67 people had been confirmed dead. The toll is expected to rise as searches of the charred rubble progress. The wildfire is one of nation’s deadliest of recent years. Aerial views of historic Lahaina showed entire neighborhoods reduced to gray ash.
Art Ramirez, left, his brother, Steve Barr, holding Kameli, on the front porch of Rameriz's house in Maui.
Barr and his brother, Art Ramirez, 43, who also grew up in Portland and also now lives on Maui, know the life they once knew has been forever changed.
Ramirez and his wife moved from Portland to Maui 16 years ago to work as a building inspector. Barr joined him seven years ago, finding a career in the service industry and working his way up to running a restaurant.
Earlier this week, Ramirez learned a wildfire was threating the home of a friend who lives a few miles away in what he calls “up country.”
“I went up there with a bunch of people,” he said in a separate phone interview. “We cleared brush and saved the house. We all came home feeling like we’d had a big victory. Then we got the news about what was going in Lahaina. We saw the videos and what people were posting.”
His brother, Barr, lives in Lahaina in a home with four other people.
“For us it began with an 80-mph windstorm,” said Barr. “All of a sudden we’re in the middle of a hurricane. “We lose all power and phone service.”
Then Barr heard explosions he called “bombs.”
“It was so close to us,” he said.
He and his roommates had only to look out the windows of their home to see the fire was out of control. Panicked residents trying to flee the flames were stuck in traffic. From friends and others, Barr later learned what took place.
“They were stuck in this freaking traffic jam,” he said. “They were literally suffocating in their cars or dying trying to escape by getting out of their cars and running away.”
Barr and his roommates realized it was time for them to get out. They each had their own car and made a good decision: to avoid downtown.
But, he said, they all wondered if they had enough time.
“We stupidly took too long to evacuate,” he said. “I think we were the last ones out of our neighborhood.”
They fled with two dogs and four cats.
“That’s it,” he said. “Everything else – and I mean everything – we left behind. The house is gone.”
Barr got lucky. He made it to his brother’s home, who lives in an area the flames didn’t reach.
“No one really knows what’s going to happen,” said Barr. “People are trying to get messages to loved ones. They are trying to see who is dead and who is still missing.”
He and his brother watch the television news.
They see the images.
They listen to officials giving updates.
“Man,” said Barr, “It’s hard to know how to process this.”
He lost everything.
Yet he feels blessed.
He has a place to live.
He has his brother.
He has his dog, Kameli.
The smoke, though, hangs heavy in the air, a reminder not everyone was so fortunate.
— Tom Hallman Jr
503-221-8224; thallman@oregonian.com; @thallmanjr
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