A week after a deadly wildfire tore through west Maui, Blue Hawaiian Helicopters is continuing its work in supporting disaster relief efforts in the devastated region.
The company typically provides aerial tourism flights across all four major Hawaiian Islands with its fleet of 22 aircraft, but has switched its focus to providing vital supplies and services to those in need from its base in Kahului Airport in central Maui.
The fires burned through West Maui in the afternoon and evening of Aug. 8, fanned by the winds of Hurricane Dora off the island’s coastline. As the flames sped towards the coastline — moving at speeds of up to a mile a minute, according to Hawaii Governor Josh Green — they destroyed the historic settlement of Lahaina, once the royal capital of the Hawaiian islands.
The death toll continues to rise, and with the official count reaching 99 as of Aug. 15, it had become the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history.
Governor Green said that the wildfires were the largest natural disaster in Hawaii’s history, with 2,200 structures damaged or destroyed and losses approaching $6 billion.
But the morning of Aug. 8 had begun much like any other August day in Maui, said Eric Hamp, director of operations at Blue Hawaiian Helicopters. Wildfires aren’t unusual in Hawaii at this time of year, so the burns in the inland areas didn’t appear an immediate cause for concern.
The only sign of something abnormal was the strong wind gusting through the island.
“Normally the firefighting helicopters can launch, but because it was windier than normal — we had the hurricane passing south of us — it made it impossible for the firefighting helicopters to depart and get out there and fight the fire,” said Hamp.
“We didn’t really know how bad it was on the west side [of Maui] until probably eight or nine o’clock in the evening. We started getting reports that the fire had really spread fast.”
By this point, the communities in that region were already overwhelmed by the flames, which had also severed lines of power and communication.
“Later in the evening on Tuesday [Aug. 8] night, we started seeing imagery and realizing how bad it was,” Hamp said. “So we made the decision to get in early and have our aircraft ready to go first thing the next morning.”
The first flight departed at 8 a.m., and Hamp said the transition from tourist flight to emergency supply operator was “seamless.”
“We have a pretty significant risk assessment process that we do for our pilots every morning for their tours,” he said. “The risk assessment is so dynamic that it applied in this situation, and we designed it that way so that it can be utilized in any situation.”
Kyu Yi, Blue Hawaiian’s director of revenue, is a west Maui resident and was in the region when the fires struck. The following morning, he went to Kapalua airport, about six miles (10 kilometers) north of Lahaina, to make sure the site was safe to land at and liaise with emergency response teams there to find out what support was needed.
By the time the first Blue Hawaiian helicopter had departed Kahului, the company had received authorization to get into Kapalua — which is typically closed to helicopter traffic.
“It happened rather quickly, because there’s a lot of faith and trust in the Blue Hawaiian name,” said Yi. “And I think with that — reaching out to the top levels of authorization with the state — it was a quite simple ask and there was not a whole lot of question there.”
Since then, the company has been working throughout the daylight hours each day.
As the state and federal response began to mobilize, Blue Hawaiian ferried food, water and medical supplies into Kapalua, using three of its Airbus EC130s and an Airbus AS350 B2.
“It really took 72 hours before the state was able to come in and kind of take over the situation,” said Quentin Koch, president of Blue Hawaiian. “The private sector really stepped up in donating the supplies, and then vertical [lift aircraft] stepped up by getting the supplies directly into the hands of the people that needed it the most.”
He said the company’s established connections with hotels in the region helped to quickly identify what their requirements were.
“Because there wasn’t the phone [connection], there wasn’t satellite, there wasn’t cell service, Kyu had to physically go talk to these people and get that information back to our helicopter so we could quickly get the support that they needed.”
Blue Hawaiian has offered free charter flights from Kapalua airport back to Kahului for those who needed to leave the area, with the road connection only occasionally open.
It has also flown in grief counsellors and local leadership, to provide them with direct communication to those in the area, and performed survey flights to help understand the scale of the destruction.
Restoring communication is key, and recent cargo has included Starlink antennas to provide satellite service.
“In Hawaii, we’re all ohana — which means family,” said Quentin Koch, president of Blue Hawaiian Helicopters and Activities. “Every single person on this island is impacted, and knows somebody that has lost their home or lost a loved one.”
He said the cultural loss of Lahaina is also keenly felt.
“It’s a very sacred place in the Hawaii community, and to have lost that hurts as well, because those are the memories that you had with Mom or Grandma in the past. To see that place where you had those memories devastated by fires… there aren’t words for that.”
Yi said that, speaking as a resident of west Maui, he was extremely grateful for Blue Hawaiian’s help as the region begins its recovery.
“Blue has gone above and beyond to keep the lifeline up for west Maui, to keep the hope up for west Maui, to connect the right people with the folks that are still disconnected and somewhat stranded out there,” he said. “I’m just grateful to be part of Blue Hawaiian, where I get to not only be a recipient, but to be part of the help and healing process.”
While at the Out Rigger in Honolulu, Denise was instrumental in arranging our private charter for the final farewell to my husband. Our trip with Steve Fenwick and Tony was a fitting goodbye to Butch. He loved the water and fishing. Our boat was met by two dolphins as it proceeded out of the harbor and headed toward Diamond Head. Once there, they provided us with every assistance and flowers to place in the water along with Butch’s ashes. I could not ask for a more beautiful final resting place for him.