Maui County issues update on eve of the third anniversary of the Maui wildfires

LAHAINA (HawaiiNewsNow) – Maui County has released a four-part video series as it prepares to mark three years since the wildfires that swept through Lahaina and Kula.

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The county said nearly 600 homes have been rebuilt and occupied in Lahaina. Another 400 are under construction, and more than 1,200 units are in the permitting process.

“Our focus in the first few years has been on returning our residents back to their homes, back to their homelands and getting them back into where they were once living,” Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen told HNN.

Twenty-one homes in Kula were also destroyed by fire. So far, five have been rebuilt and another 11 building permits have been issued.

The county is now turning its focus to commercial properties. Bissen said 14 permits are being processed, including some along Front Street, which recently reopened.

“People will know the iconic names of Kimo’s and Fleetwood’s, and perhaps even the Paia Fish Market, people will be familiar with,” Bissen said.

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Another sign of progress is the county’s new $24 million Emergency Operations Center, which opened two weeks ago.

Maui’s Emergency Management Agency also has grown from nine positions to 31.

Three years on, the county is still holding monthly community meetings in Lahaina.

“The promises that were kept and have been kept of community-led, government supported — that is what should always happen, and it is what literally, rarely ever happens,” said Jennifer Grey Thompson, the CEO of the group After The Fire USA. Thompson appeared in a series of videos the county produced just ahead of the three-year anniversary.

“And so there’s so many elements to this, not just how many homes were rebuilt or how many businesses have a permit, but really how are the people in those homes and in those businesses — how are they doing?,” said Bissen.

The main commemoration of the fire anniversary will be the Kuhinia Maui gathering at the Lahaina United Methodist Church on Front Street on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. There will also be a Lahaina Remembrance Hour, starting at 6 p.m. at the Memorial Crosses and Teardrop on Lahainaluna Road near the bypass.

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