How a San Diego coalition is helping Lahaina victims 1 year after deadly fires

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Thursday and Friday marked one year since the catastrophic Lahaina fires on Maui.

According to FEMA, 102 people were killed and more than 2,200 buildings were destroyed. The fire caused over $5 billion in damage.

One year after the devastating wildfires, San Diego is still trying to help Lahaina victims recover and rebuild.

San Diego resident JoAnn Fields started the San Diego Loves Maui coalition last year. She led massive donation drives, delivering over 400 boxes to Maui, and went with her coalition to help as boots on the ground.

Today, Fields and her coalition are going before state and federal leaders, advocating for the Lahaina victims and their family members, supporting them still to this day.

On Thursday, the San Diego Loves Maui Coalition went to a White House Summit at UC Irvine called "White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Americans, Pacific Islander AA, and NHPI Economic Summit."

Fields said the coalition presented a proposal to some critical representatives of the AAPI community at the federal level, asking for their support on the Kinship Emergency Support Services.

Courtesy of JoAnn Fields

The initiative would essentially send federal dollars to the family members who are still taking care of Lahaina victims to this day.

Fields said the unique thing about the Hawaiian culture, much like the rest of the AAPI community, is that they turned to their family members during the Maui devastation. They typically do not seek out governmental aid, she added.

Fields said Lahaina victims displaced by the fires are still living with their family one year later, and not just on the islands, but across the world, including in San Diego, and their kin are struggling financially to keep up with everyone living under one roof.

"Instead of paying $200 a night for a hotel room, which is just $1,400 for the week, times that by a month," Field said. "In the case of Maui, there are still people still without a home, so give it to [their] family members so they can pay for the increased utility bills, grocery bills."

Fields said Thursday's summit was "a great opportunity to connect with federal decision makers and to advocate for the Kinship Emergency Support Services. We will continue to move this initiative forward on [different] levels of government."

Fields also said the coalition is working on doing another donation drive soon, and that coalition members born and raised in Maui, have been communicating with island members to learn what their needs are one year after the fires.

"There are many people that moved Mau from to San Diego due to the fire. We have members in our San Diego Loves Maui crew, Andy and Kara the owners of Kalei's Kitchenette, they went back to Maui to directly talk with family members, [asking] how can we better assist," Fields said.