As most Lāhainā residents fled the fiery nightmare of their town on Aug. 8, Shaun "Buge" Saribay stayed.
“Out of five structures where we were, we went save two. Had four water hoses, was fighting this fire with a garden hose, two buckets and eight 16-ounce empty water bottles we kept on filling up, and just throwing water all around [on] all these embers and saving this house,” he recalled.
After his own home burned, he fought with a handful of friends to save others.
“So we took rope from that house. We went tie rope to trees. Moved them out of the way. Some broke, we had to retie some. All kine, going through survival mode, just for get out, and we finally got out from all of that, went save 17 lives and one three month baby," Saribay said.
"After that long, nearly 24 hours of fighting, non-stop, dehydrated, everything."
He saw death all around him but had promised his family he’d make it out alive.
“My last words to my family were, especially my kids, I said, 'No worry, girls, daddy get ‘em, no worry. I coming back. I coming home. We no more home now. But you know what I mean. Daddy coming home. No worry, I got this.'”
The next day, he headed for the Hawaiian Home Lands community of Leiali’i, just outside Lāhainā, where he reunited with his family. But the fight wasn’t over. He noticed grass on fire and the wind blowing it toward the surviving homes. He and others grabbed hoses to contain it until firefighters could return.
More than a month later, Saribay said Lāhainā residents are left with more questions than answers.
“Nobody has [given] us, the community, the people of Lāhainā, real legit answers," he said. "My voice is everyone’s voice, and everyone’s voice is my voice, because we all want the same thing: an answer of these types of questions, such as how long more? How long more till we can go into our properties? How long more till we build up?"
"How long more can we stay at this hotel before we get kicked out? How long more do we have until we gotta actually start paying for mortgage, which is now a piece of dirt, not a house?”
Saribay said starting next month, he has to pay his mortgage on his three Lāhainā properties — his home and two houses he rented to fellow locals — even though those homes are just ashes.
Whenever his town rebuilds, he hopes to keep some of its traditional, plantation-style roots.
“My dad's years was traditional, nothing modernized, and still living to Hawaiian ways and style to what it was in those years," Saribay explained.
"If we can bring back my father guys’ years or even before my father guys’ years, that will be cherry, knowing before I take my last breath, that's how my kids going live.”
In the meantime, he's staying in Leiali’i. He motions toward the sunset over the ocean across the road.
“How long more can I stay here? I get a sunset view every day where I'm staying. How long more can I see that? So the life of the Lāhainā community is one big question mark.”
