How A Paradise Became A Death Trap: An Update

00:01
Speaker 1
Hey, it's Sabrina. This week, the daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year, listening back and then hearing what's happened in the time since they first ran. Today, the fire that devastated lahaina Hawai in August, and one man's story of surviving it. It's Tuesday, December.

00:35
Speaker 2
Hello?

00:36
Speaker 1
Hi, is this Idris?

00:39
Speaker 2
Yes, it is. Hi, Idris.

00:42
Speaker 3
Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. And I wonder, Idris, if you could introduce yourself for me. Tell me your name, your age, where you live, and what your profession is.

00:54
Speaker 4
My name is Idris Noira, 32 years old.

00:58
Speaker 2
I lived on prison street in Maui, lahaina, and I was the manager at a hilton, property of the beach and pool. Worked in sales.

01:10
Speaker 4
Got it.

01:11
Speaker 3
And I wonder if you could start by telling us, just kind of from the beginning how your day started.

01:19
Speaker 2
So actually was my first true day off in a long time.

01:23
Speaker 4
And I woke up in the middle.

01:27
Speaker 2
Of the night, which was Monday night.

01:29
Speaker 4
Tuesday morning, around three or 04:00 a.m.

01:31
Speaker 2
When we lost power.

01:32
Speaker 4
So it got pretty hot, so I.

01:34
Speaker 2
Opened up the windows, and by the time I woke up, around six, seven A-M-I noticed we didn't have service. Neither cell service. Yeah.

01:44
Speaker 4
And honestly, I was just annoyed. I was like, I've been waiting for this day off forever, and no power. We didn't even know it was a hurricane.

01:53
Speaker 2
We just thought it was windy.

01:55
Speaker 3
And were you aware of the fire at that point?

01:57
Speaker 4
Oh, absolutely not. There was no fire in the morning.

01:59
Speaker 2
That I was aware of. We had no warnings at all.

02:04
Speaker 4
And so I think it was around noon or one. One of my neighbors came and knocked on my door, and he said, hey, you need to come out and see this. So I came out, and in front of my house, I have a little cottage behind my house. I could see a lot of smoke, so I called my cat, outdoor cat, and I called her, and I couldn't find her all day. And then I just gave up. And I closed my door. And then my neighbor came back maybe an hour later, and he said, there's another fire. And it was closer. It's actually the street behind us, and I have a scooter. So I actually went to go check out how close the fire was, and I got on front street, which is the street that goes along the ocean.

02:54
Speaker 4
And I see there's this restaurant up in flame, and I saw people running. And straight in front of me, there's a medical center. And I remember actually seeing a line of people trying to get in the medical center. Then behind me, there's a whole business on fire. It's, like, holy. Everything was on fire. I didn't understand how things started to catch on fire. It didn't make sense. And now I started to panic. So I went back to the neighbors, but the neighbors were all gone. And I felt kind of lost. And there was wind, and it was trees falling down. And I screamed for my cat, and I saw her run under the house, and she didn't want to come out, so I was panicking.

03:44
Speaker 4
Reality started to set in, and so I said, okay, maybe the safest place to be right now is here, because I wouldn't even know where to go. And so I'm closing the door. And about five minutes, everything turned black outside, and a medical center across the street was up in flame to the sky. Oh, my God. And I couldn't understand. I said, how I just saw people. There was nothing, like 510 minutes ago. It really looked like someone put gasoline all over the building, and it just took up and flame. It just didn't extend how, like, a stone building could burn so fast. And so I opened the door, still calling my cat, and I felt something burning on my shoulder, and it was debris like amber. And I look up in the sky, and it's literally fire coming down the sky.

04:38
Speaker 4
It was raining fire. And now I said, I have to get out of here. And so I got everything I could, all the necessities, clothes and wallet and pictures or whatever, and put everything in two big bags. And I ran out of the house. And as I ran out of the house, there was smoke everywhere. And I saw one of my neighbors coughing. He was right in front of the house, and he was just coughing. And it's like, what are you doing here? He's like, oh. I went to the store, and I said, okay, let's get on my Scooter. So he came behind me on my scooter, and the fire came from uphill. It was coming down, so to me, the safest place if this fire is water. And so in the panic, I said, we have to go to the harbor.

05:27
Speaker 4
And then we got on front street, and on front street, I was just chaos. I could hear screams, and then I can see people, but I could hear them scream. Scary screams of pain I've never heard before. There were clearly people burning alive. It was a deep pain and people throwing up, and it was horrifying. It was horrifying to hear that. I'm so glad I can see it was black because there's so much smoke, but we could clearly hear them all around us. All around us. It felt like were in hell.

06:12
Speaker 1
It will be right back.

06:18
Speaker 4
The wind itself. The wind was the scariest thing. The wind was so hot, it was burning our skin. It was so strong because everything was on fire.

06:26
Speaker 2
And I told Damon, you got to.

06:29
Speaker 4
Tell me when to turn to the.

06:30
Speaker 2
Harbor because I can't see nothing.

06:32
Speaker 4
And so we finally got to the.

06:33
Speaker 2
Harbor, and I left my scooter there. And at the edge of the water on the harbor, there's a little house.

06:42
Speaker 4
It's called the harbor masters hut.

06:44
Speaker 2
So we had our back against the wall and were facing the ocean, and we're just waiting. We just didn't know what to do.

06:52
Speaker 3
Did you say anything to him?

06:54
Speaker 4
No, were not talking. We didn't know. I mean, in my mind, I'm like, okay, we're going to wait here. At least we're not going to burn.

07:01
Speaker 2
That's what I was thinking. But a couple of minutes waiting there.

07:05
Speaker 4
I saw a shadow just run and jump in the water on the side of the house.

07:09
Speaker 2
And I said, damon, do you see this?

07:10
Speaker 4
And we look in the water as.

07:12
Speaker 2
A big pit bull just drowning in front of know. He had the big head and yellow eyes.

07:17
Speaker 4
And I want to help him, but I didn't know if he was going to bite me or pull him with.

07:20
Speaker 2
Him in the know. So I kept calling him and calling him, but he couldn't do it. He tried his best to do it.

07:27
Speaker 4
But he couldn't do it. And I'll never forget the look he.

07:30
Speaker 2
Gave me in his eyes. He just gave up and his head went underwater. And I told Damon to hold my feet and I took my shirt off.

07:39
Speaker 4
And somehow I managed to grab it.

07:40
Speaker 2
By the collar and pulled him out. And we tried to calm him down. He was just walking in circles. He was in panic mode. And then I called the police and.

07:50
Speaker 4
I said, hey, we're on the harbor. We're stuck. You guys have to come get us.

07:53
Speaker 2
And the lady was just.

07:55
Speaker 4
She didn't know what to say.

07:56
Speaker 2
She said, I'm sorry, we can't come get you. Everything was in flames and they were overwhelmed. I hung up, and I just remember seeing debris falling from the sky and our bags kept catching on fires.

08:13
Speaker 4
Miraculously, I saw on my phone I had 1 bar of service. So I tried to call my best friend Yaseen, and I told my best friend, hey, I love you. Tell everybody I love them. It's going to be okay. Here's my mom's number. Don't call her now.

08:27
Speaker 2
Wait.

08:27
Speaker 4
Let her sleep.

08:29
Speaker 3
Were you preparing because you thought you might not make it?

08:32
Speaker 4
Oh, yeah. We didn't think were going to make it. And after I hung up with him, I called the police again, and she gave me the same answer. She said, I'm sorry. And I could feel the frustration in her voice. She was just helpless. She didn't know. And I felt so bad for her because she probably had so many calls like this. And so I hung up again, and I was just frustrated. So at this point, I thought maybe I could get into harbor. Messer's hut, the little house. Damon had a knife with him, and he cut the screen off, and I started punching the window with all my strength until I fractured my hand. The window was so thick, it wouldn't even do anything.

09:12
Speaker 4
And so I called the police the third time, and I said, if you guys don't come right now, we're going to die. And she said, you guys have to jump in the water. And I said, no way. You want us to jump in a hurricane at night with all this, like, there's no way we can jump. The water was crazy. And she said, you have no choice. You have to jump in the water. And I hung up, and I looked at Damon. I was like, we have to jump. And Damon said, there's no way I'm jumping. I'm not jumping. And I told him, listen, either we burn or we, you know, I waited a couple more minutes. I tried to convince him, and I said that I'm jumping. There were rocks maybe 100ft away or 150ft. And I finally made it.

10:01
Speaker 4
And I look back and I scream at Damon, and he was just terrified. He was next to the dog. And I told him, jump. And I kept screaming, and he just didn't want to. And I could see him hanging on to the harbor with half his body in the water. And I kept screaming, you need to let go. You need to let go. And he screamed, my shoes are too heavy. And so I just made this decision to jump and go get him. So I got back in the water, and I got back next to him. I tried to go and take his shoes off, but I couldn't even find his feet. The ocean were just pushing me against the wall. And I told him, you have to follow me.

10:44
Speaker 5
I see.

10:46
Speaker 2
And the way he was swimming, I said, there's no way he's going to make it.

10:50
Speaker 4
He was just struggling, just swallowing water and coughing.

10:53
Speaker 2
And somehow he managed to get very close to the rock, and I pulled him up.

10:57
Speaker 4
He's overweight and he's older.

11:00
Speaker 2
It was a miracle.

11:02
Speaker 4
And we still had debris falling on us. And we had a wave just coming over us. We were holding onto the rocks to.

11:07
Speaker 2
Not get pulled or sucked in by the ocean. It was just a nightmare. And then I heard a dog screaming. So I was like, I have to go back. And I jumped back in the water.

11:22
Speaker 4
I tried to get back on the harbor.

11:24
Speaker 2
He was laying against the wall, his eyes closed and just screaming.

11:31
Speaker 4
There's no way I could carry him. It's a big pit bull. And I had one.

11:34
Speaker 2
My hand was fractured or broken, so.

11:38
Speaker 4
I thought, if I try to grab him in the water, he's already freaked out.

11:41
Speaker 2
We're both going to drown.

11:42
Speaker 4
He's going to die for sure, and I'm probably not going to make it. So in one of my bags, I had a blanket and I dipped it.

11:49
Speaker 2
In the ocean five or six times and I put it on top of the dog. That's all I could do.

11:56
Speaker 4
And I took one of my bags and I jumped back in the ocean. And then I almost drowned. I was just so exhausted. And I panicked halfway, and I was praying to God, please help me. And I thank God I made it to the jetty and I went back on the other side. And I talked to Damon. He was not answering. And I grabbed his hand and he just held my hand. He was just in shock. And then maybe an hour after that, I saw light far away. And I told Damon, I said, hey, I think there's a boat over there. And we're, like, screaming. I was screaming at the top of my lungs, and they were, like, coming towards us, like, thank God. And it was the coast guard. And they were like, we can't get close.

12:47
Speaker 4
You guys have to jump in the water because it was so rough. They were crashing the rocks, and I.

12:53
Speaker 2
Jumped first, and they got me in. I just lay down on my back and I could just see amber just falling on us.

13:04
Speaker 4
Like the sky had no stars. The amber was the stars. Red stars in the sky. That's what it looked like. Just a black sky with red stars just falling down. I was floating on the ocean, but I felt like I was floating in space. I was thanking God. I was like, thank you, thank you. I don't deserve this. It was just unbelievable that we made it. And Damon, he managed to make it. And I was like, thank God we made it. And I said, oh, how'd you guys find us? And they said, we got a call that someone might be on the harbor. So I think that lady, she relayed the call and finally got to us. And I said, thank God we made it. And he said, oh, not yet. We still have to go through the storm.

14:02
Speaker 4
And I said, where are we going? He said, we don't know. Everything's on fire. And I looked behind me and it looked like war. It was just flames up to the sky, the whole town, and the darkness. So we got to Maui high school. They made a shelter there. And then when we arrived, of course, were like, covering suit and all black, so everyone was looking at us and I was barefoot. The people kept staring at my feet. Everybody knew we're the ones who survived. Everybody that was in the shelter or the lucky ones.

15:10
Speaker 1
After the break, senior producer Lindsay Garrison shares an update on Idris, a survivor of Lahainas Fire.

15:21
Speaker 6
It's still very fresh. Really?

15:23
Speaker 2
Honestly, till this day, it feels like it was yesterday.

15:28
Speaker 6
I'm at a hotel and no one knows what's next.

15:34
Speaker 4
Actually.

15:37
Speaker 7
I called Idris back in late November. He talked to me from a hotel. He said he'd been living in hotels for more than three months, waiting for FEMA to secure him an apartment.

15:52
Speaker 5
Have you been moved from hotel to hotel since we.

15:56
Speaker 4
Yes.

15:57
Speaker 2
Yes.

15:57
Speaker 5
Oh, my goodness. How many hotels?

16:01
Speaker 4
Two.

16:01
Speaker 6
And actually end up because they made a mistake and I ended up homeless for a night. So, yeah, it's been hard for everyone, and I'm not blaming know, I know.

16:11
Speaker 2
They don't know, but it's very hard for us. And it's really hard to live in a hotel room for that long.

16:19
Speaker 6
Eating McDonald's every day? Not the most. Also, if you leave your hotel room for more than two or three days.

16:28
Speaker 2
Then you lose that room.

16:30
Speaker 6
So you can't even go and visit family.

16:32
Speaker 4
You can't do anything.

16:34
Speaker 2
It really feels like we're in jail.

16:37
Speaker 5
Do you do anything to give yourself.

16:40
Speaker 7
Some relief from just feeling stuck?

16:44
Speaker 6
She don't want to know absolutely nothing.

16:46
Speaker 4
I'm just in my room every day. Everyone's displaced. All my friends are on the other side.

16:52
Speaker 6
And you're like, you don't have a.

16:54
Speaker 2
Car, and it's kind of hard to just go to the beach by yourself.

17:02
Speaker 6
Yeah, it's a weird feeling. I have multiple friends that moved, lost their job, lost their homes. I personally lost my job as well because I'm displaced. And a lot of us are still mourning and they're still in shocked, and they reopened for tourists, but it's kind of like attending a funeral and you're having a party next door. Like, you're walking and everyone's happy and everyone's drinking and music, and you're there and you feel like a ghost. Like, not really in the mood.

17:41
Speaker 4
So it's a weird feeling.

17:44
Speaker 5
Yeah.

17:45
Speaker 6
It's going to be a long time before the high night gets back to how it was. It's never going to be how it was.

17:55
Speaker 5
Did you ever find anything out about the pit bull that you tried to save?

18:00
Speaker 4
No.

18:01
Speaker 6
So my cat is still missing and on the pit bull is still missing. I still have a little hope. I know my friend, they just found.

18:10
Speaker 4
Her cat like, a week ago.

18:12
Speaker 5
Really?

18:13
Speaker 4
Yeah.

18:13
Speaker 6
They're still finding a lot of pets, so I don't know if my cat was as fortunate, but people are telling me not to lose hope.

18:20
Speaker 5
I hope they both turn up.

18:22
Speaker 4
Me, too. Me too.

18:24
Speaker 6
I really hope so.

18:25
Speaker 5
Yeah.

18:30
Speaker 7
Can you sort of envision what your ideal future, your ideal life would look like there in the coming months?

18:40
Speaker 6
It's hard because I was living my dream before all this happened. So it's hard for me to think of a better situation that I had before.

18:51
Speaker 2
But I think my hope would be.

18:54
Speaker 6
To get my place and hopefully find my cat and then start moving down from there.

19:00
Speaker 2
It's kind of hard right now to imagine about anything.

19:07
Speaker 6
And that's the hardest part. The hardest thing is not to know.

19:21
Speaker 1
Today's episode was produced by Lindsay Garrison and Sidney Harper. It was edited by Liz O'Balen and Michael Benoit with help from Lexi Diao. Contains original music by Marion Lozano, Rowan Nimasto, and Dan Powell and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. That's it for the daily. I'm Sabrina Tavernisi. See you tomorrow.