The hall of historic Waiola Church in Lahaina and nearby Lahaina Hongwanji Mission are engulfed in flames along Wainee Street on Tuesday in Lahaina, Hawaii. Photo by Matthew Thayer/The Maui News via AP

Maui Wildfires

“These People Have Nothing to Go Back To.” COM Student, Maui Native, Helps Others amid Devastating Wildfires

Noelle Lo is volunteering at her old high school, now a shelter

“Proud Maui girl” and Boston University journalism student Noelle Lo says it’s heart-wrenching to see the devastation wildfires wrought this week on the Hawaiian island she calls home—and where she is now volunteering to help her community.

“People don’t understand. It’s not just buildings, homes being burnt down. It’s, it’s memories, it’s history, it’s livelihoods, all in one,” Lo (COM’26) says from Maui High School, where she graduated in 2022. Roughly a 20-mile drive from hard-hit Lahaina, the school is now serving as a shelter for evacuees. “People are suffering, it’s devastating,” she says. “I mean, one day, you’re at home, and the next, you lose your family members, you lose your home, you lose your life.”

Lo is safe and so is her family. But she has been helping out at the shelter since early in the disaster, when smoke filled the air and flames turned the sky an eerie orange at night. With six active fires having burned roughly 2,000 acres, according to Hawaii Emergency Management, the fires are being called one of the worst natural disasters to ever hit Hawaii. At last count, 96 people have died in the fires, a figure that’s expected to climb.

“I can’t just idly sit by,” Lo says. “If my community needs me, I will provide what I can. I have the capability.” She’s helping organize and serve food and helping with the family reunification process.

“I’ve also been aiding with the well-being of people,” she says. “We check on them, we make sure they’re okay. There’s people with special needs and people with mental health [issues]. It’s a lot, it’s a lot to handle. You see hundreds of cots and beds, people just begging for sleep. Food and these kids, who don’t know what’s happening, babies, and dogs—it’s insane.” 

It’s the only time during the 20-minute call that she pauses, choked up.

“I had an older man come up to me, and he’s saying, ‘I’m so grateful.’ And he was telling me his house burned down, and he has no family to go to. And he told me, ‘You were the first person to help me,’ and all I did was pour him a cup of coffee,” she says. “And that’s when I knew my people need me more than ever. I mean, these people have nothing to go back to. Some of them are kupuna, grandparents, elderly, and their lives are gone. Their history.”

Lo was home for the summer, staying with her parents in Wailuku, hostessing at a restaurant in a Four Season resort and doing a news internship at a community media station. She was enjoying a day on the beach near Makena, on the south side of the island, when her phone started blowing up with Instagram notifications and then posts from her friends in Lahaina. “It was a little surreal,” she says.

Some of her friends were listed as missing for a while, but all have turned up safe, she says, but some have lost houses, and the parents of one are still missing. 

“It’s devastating,” Lo says. “It’s absolutely sickening.” 

She says the devastation of Lahaina, site of the worst fire, has been hard to watch for island natives like herself. “It was not only a tourist town, but it was full of life. I mean, I used to dance hula when I was a kid, I danced in Lahaina. We would go shopping and eat there after the beach. I’d go to Cool Cat Cafe with my friends and with my mom. It was beautiful. And there was always the beach. The beach was so beautiful and the water was clean. It was bright.”

Because the shelter is at her high school , she felt a strong pull to help out there.

“I need to give back,” Lo says. “It’s overwhelming the amount of volunteers that have come forward. I didn’t ever realize I’d be working alongside my junior high band teacher or my high school science teacher. It’s crazy to see the amount of support Maui is receiving. Even people who are supposed to be on vacation, who are now at the shelter are still volunteering.”

“We’re doing social media blasts every chance we get, for we need donations here, there, and everywhere,” she says. 

For those wishing to donate, Lo recommends the Maui Food Bank, Maui Humane Society, Maui Mutual Aid, and the Red Cross.