Irish in Maui tell of ‘living nightmare’ as wildfires tear through communities

The Department of Foreign Affairs has said it is aware of a small number of Irish citizens affected by wildfires in Maui that have killed dozens and left hundreds missing.

The department advised those currently in Hawaii to stay away from affected areas, comply with evacuation orders and follow the instructions of emergency services.

Former Xposé presenter Peter O’Riordan, who now lives on Maui, said on Twitter that he had lost his home in the wildfires, describing the situation as “a living nightmare”.

“I’m literally just in pure devastation, I don’t know how we will proceed as a community. We have all lost everything,” he said.

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Mike O’Dwyer, originally from Co Tipperary and owner of Mulligans on the Blue bar and restaurant in Maui, said his family had to leave their home.

[ Hawaii wildfires: What we know so far about the death toll, cause, damage and more ]

“A lot of things go through your head, you start wondering about life and everything that’s going on around you, and what means something and what should you take,” he told RTÉ's Prime Time. “Basically we took our passports and my daughter took her favourite clothes, but that was it.”

Declan Kelly and his family arrived in Maui last Saturday to stay at a resort in Kihei on the south shore of the island. He told Newstalk’s Pat Kenny show that the family had thought of staying in Lahaina, which is on the west coast of the island and at the centre of the current emergency.

“We actually went to Lahaina on Monday, not realising it would be razed to the ground less than 24 hours later,” he said.

Maui is a beautiful island, he said. “It’s absolutely like paradise.”

Mr Kelly said there had been no talk about the fires when they visited Lahaina, which he described as a beautiful area full of craft shops and galleries and lovely old buildings on the waterfront. The resort where they were staying was only 20 miles from Lahaina. When the family went out for a meal on Tuesday night, they noticed the smell of smoke.

“We turned on the news, we started looking at social media and realised there was a fire. We didn’t know anything about the extent of it - you could see a red glow in the distance.”

An alert message from the US government came through to a phone of one of his group. They realised then that there were three fires, one of which was just 2½ miles south of them. Given its proximity, they decided to go north to get closer to the airport, which was not affected.

Mr Kelly said he was concerned that most of the roads on the island were only two lanes which meant if they “clogged up” there would be nowhere to go.

The journey to the airport had been a “white knuckle drive” with him holding on tightly to the steering wheel of the rental car. “I was unnaturally calm. I just knew I had a job to do and I needed to keep going.”

Since then the family have received the all-clear to return to their accommodation. While the fires are not totally extinguished, they appear to be under control to a large extent, he said. “We waited a while and we made a decision to go back, we’d left stuff behind us as well. We went back down the road and it was clear, and our area seems to be stable.”

Mr Kelly said they are continuing with their holiday and plan to visit other islands.

Any Irish citizens requiring consular assistance in Maui can contact the Consulate General of Ireland in Los Angeles on +13102795380or the Department on +35314082000