A Maui Love Story

When 18-year-olds Lanz Aguinaldo and Isabella Lynch's hometown went up in flames, they turned toward each other to survive.

- By Erika Hayasaki. Photograph by Josiah Patterson

Sweating through the sheets, Lanz Aguinaldo rolled over in bed to reach for Isabella Lynch. It was just after 9 a.m. on August 8, and the pair normally loved sleeping in, cuddling as the sun streamed through the windows and warmed their bed. Today, the room felt like it was roasting. Isabella, too hot and uncomfortable to sleep, had been awake for 30 minutes already. A plug-in window air conditioner, which usually kept them cool during the tropical Maui summers, could not power on. Electricity in Lahaina had been out for over two hours. Outside, the wind screamed.

A mile northeast, that wind had already toppled power lines, igniting a brush fire in a field swarming with overgrown grass and weeds across from Lahaina Intermediate School, along Lahainaluna Road. Local residents had reported the fire at 6:37 that morning, but without power, television, or internet service, Lanz and Isabella had not heard anything about it.

To the northwest, Lanz and Isabella’s street turned into a dead end. The only direct way out of their neighborhood, and away from the fire-ignition site, was southwest via Lahainaluna Road, two-tenths of a mile away. But the couple were not thinking about exit routes when they woke up that morning. They did not know there was a three-acre-wide brush fire so close.

The National Weather Service had been warning of the fire threats and intense winds from Hurricane Dora, 500 miles from Maui. Forecasters predicted gusts of up to 60 mph, strong enough to move a person. The 18-year-olds had lived through similar red-flag warnings before. Lanz did not think today would be much different. But when she stepped outside, the hot, dusty air whipped around her.