Today Lahaina Harbor is clear of the more than 100 boats that either sank or were damaged or spared during the disaster. It was a monumental effort that included the U.S. Coast Guard and teams of contractors. The salvage mission was completed in December 2023.
This month the U.S. Coast Guard also marked 234 years of providing maritime safety and security. The Conversation talked to Capt. Aja Kirksey and Comm. Kristen Hahn about the rescue and recovery efforts during and after the Maui wildfires on Aug. 8 and 9, 2023.
Eight Coast Guard members were recently honored for their brave efforts that night and in the days that followed. They aren't trained for fires, but they jumped into action and did what they could to rescue people who had fled to the ocean to escape the flames.
Interview Highlights
On salvaging boats that sank in Lahaina Harbor during the August 2023 wildfires
CAPT. AJA KIRKSEY: What we found was that the damage to the vessels that were sunken was catastrophic. They were very damaged. Vessels that had gasoline on board had exploded and were just in pieces. Vessels that maybe hadn't exploded, but their superstructure had burned, it burned to the water line, but the water line continued to rise up out of the water as the vessel became more buoyant, and then it would continue to burn down. So what we found were these keels that, in some cases, looked like a skeleton of the vessel. So little left of the vessel itself, it made the vessels difficult to identify, even by their owners or people who are familiar with the vessels. But it also meant that removal operations could be done by smaller, more agile and mobile types of equipment. Having divers and lift bags is an effective and efficient way to do that, but other times, with some of the larger vessels that were really impacted by the heat, we thought we would have to cut those larger ones up. Some we did have to cut, but others, the metal was so brittle that the heavy lift equipment were able to sort of just bite into those and tear them into pieces just by coming at them with the cranes.
On ensuring vessel owners got the information they needed
KIRKSEY: Early on, what we determined was that the best way to ensure that the vessel owners had the information they needed early on was to contact them directly. We actually ended up establishing a harbor coordination group where we considered our primary customer throughout this entire event, there's the state — we were working on behalf of the state — but really we were all working on behalf of the owners and operators of the vessels in the harbor. So it was so important to us to make sure that they had a place that they could ask all of their questions, as we were able to show them pictures. The area was unsafe and restricted, but we were able to show them pictures of what we were seeing on a day-to-day basis and answer their questions. And their concerns were varied, but in some cases, it was just the emotional toll, and they wanted an opportunity to say goodbye. And we did provide that opportunity to them once we understood that that was a priority, including before we started removal operations, even gathering to do a pule with owners and others who were interested — and other times, making sure they had the opportunity at the site where we put all the vessels, where they were transitioned to the Army Corps of Engineers. But being responsive to their emotional needs was as big a priority for us.
On the trauma Coast Guard personnel faced on Aug. 8, 2023
COMM. KRISTEN HAHN: It was certainly unprecedented and the Coast Guard does not train to respond to fires or rescue people from fires. So there was a lot of initiative and drive and bravery exercised by really the eight people who went out in two boats to save people that first night on Aug. 8. And what they went through included not just no visibility with intense smoke and intense heat, but flying embers. The only thing they could see was flames. The wind was blowing so hard they couldn't hear anything. They were navigating hoping to find somebody through the smoke. That night two boat crews from Station Maui rescued 17 people and assisted approximately 40 with with our partners from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the local fire department, as well as the police department. What they experienced was harrowing. They're very young people. Some of them recently had been enlisted in the Coast Guard, so hadn't even reached their 21st birthday. So, it's been a slow recovery. I worked with them regularly, and I think they're a bit fatigued,
On Coast Guard personnel using paddle boards to save people
HAHN: After about 11 p.m. at night, we sent the second boat crew towards Front Street by the Fleetwood restaurant, and we knew there were a lot of people on the shore track, so they made a plan, and it took two attempts to send a Coast Guard surface swimmer on a paddle board to the shore to try to shuttle people back to the boat. We had charter vessels that had volunteered to get underway and help us with the rescue. And on the second attempt, an off-duty lifeguard from one of the charter vessels volunteered to help, and he also paddled in with us. They eventually recovered two people from the shoreline, paddled them back to the boat, and when they went for the second rescue, the police department had showed up and had a vehicle ready to recover people. Those two individuals ended up helping the 40 people to the vehicle and carrying some of them as well who were not able to walk on their own.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Aug. 8, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. Tori DeJournett adapted this story for the web.
