WE'LL HUNKER DOWN AND HELP

Ex-pats caught up in Hawaii horror

- NICOLA DONNELLY

IRISH people living on the Hawaiian island of Maui are selflessly “hunkering down and helping” out as best they can – despite several losing everything. 

Businessman Mike O’Dwyer, who owns Fabiani’s Italian Restaurant and Mulligan’s Irish pub in Kihei, told us it is “hard to come to terms with it all” as the fast-moving wildfires ripped through the city of Lahaina.

The death toll has already reached 55 and is expected to rise with more than 1,000 still unaccounted for since the blazes broke out.

Now, Mike, who is from Clonmel in Tipperary and moved to Maui in 1996, told us now the fires are “80% contained,” it’s time for him to “hunker down and help”.

One of the wildfires was a quarter of a mile away from where Mike lives and works, but disaster was avoided when winds shifted course and the fire moved sideways.