A woman and her son survive Maui wildfire
By Alyssa Munoz
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MAUI COUNTY, Hawaii (KOAT) — A New Mexico native survived the wildfires that ravaged through the town of Lahaina. Shantal Catanach is from Santa Fe but moved to Lahaina a few years ago. Earlier this week, she thought she heard storm winds outside. Instead, it was a wildfire outside her home. Catanach said her son saved their lives.
“He kept telling me, Mama, you can’t go to sleep. Mama, please don’t go to sleep,” Catanach said.
They were about to take a nap after a long day when her son, Keanu, begged her not to. He pointed out the black smoke coming from outside their balcony. Within minutes she left her belongings and escaped with her son.
“That keeps replaying in my mind because if me and my son would have taken a nap at that moment and I would have fell asleep for a few hours, we would have been stuck in that building and it would have been in flames in a matter of 30 minutes to an hour. We would have died there,” Catanach said.
She was able to get out of Lahaina safely, but once she returned, she realized what was once her home, was now a building in flames.
“You don’t think that Maui, an island like this, is going to be caught on fire to this extent. You would think that’s more normal in the desert in New Mexico,” Catanach said.
She remembers police blocked off the main road to evacuate, so she and some of the other local residents took a dirt road to escape the town. She and her son spent two nights sleeping in her car outside of town.
“I feel like when it came to the police department, they were not doing their due diligence to really save people and allow that road right there to be opened,” Catanach said. “That gas station that I was parked next to, waiting, blew up. So, whoever was there in that area at that time when that gas station blew up, you know, I’m not sure if they survived.”
She also mentioned that some of the locals feel like outsiders. They gathered necessities for people in Lahaina but were denied because it wasn’t through an organization.
“The local people are trying to help their families out there. I feel like a lot of the local people are pretty angry about this,” Catanach said.
Friday night, county officials confirmed at least 80 people have been killed.
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