Hawaiian man’s harrowing journey to save grandma from wildfires — 13 miles by bike and car: ‘God had his hand on my shoulder’

A desperate Hawaiian man turned into a modern-day Paul Revere, trading in a horse for a bicycle as he raced against flames to warn his grandmother about the devastating, incoming wildfire.

Pa’ele Kiakona, 28, traveled 13 miles through a torched hellscape on Aug. 8, in a frantic bid to save his beloved grandma who lived in the doomed town of Lahaina.

“I was going as fast as I could, but the fire was coming really fast,” Kiakona told The Post on Friday about the harrowing ride from his Honokohau Valley home to the beachfront town in which he was raised.

“I almost fell over multiple times – the wind was just crazy,” Kiakona said. “There were points where I felt I would give up, like I couldn’t make it.

“But I felt as if God had his hand on my shoulder, pushing me, helping me.”

Kiakona said he barely beat the flood of flames to his grandma’s house on Front Street, a one-lane road that runs along the Lahaina Harbor waterfront.

Pa’ele Kiakona, a 28-year-old Hawaii resident, drove and rode a total of 13 miles by car and bicycle to warn his grandma about the fires approaching Lahaina.

Downed power lines like this closed a number of roads, Kiakona said.

“I got there and I told her, ‘You need to leave now,'” Kiakona said. “Luckily, my grandma had some tenants and they had a car, they packed their stuff and jumped in the car.”

The fires swept through less than a half-hour later, destroying his grandma’s home, he said.

But Kiakona saved her from becoming one of an ever-increasing number of casualties, which has already stretched well above 100.

Officials have not been able to say how many people are unaccounted for, but the blaze that consumed Lahaina is already considered the deadliest in the US in more than a century.

It destroyed nearly every building in the town of about 13,000. The cause is still under investigation.

Destroyed buildings after the wildfire tore through Lahaina, Hawaii.

More than 100 casualties have already been reported.

Kiakona said his wild journey had started at about 4 p.m. Aug. 8, when he got a call that flames were headed toward Lahaina.

“Somebody from another island called me because there was no power, landlines or cellphone service,” Kiakona said. “People couldn’t get the word out to anyone else outside Lahaina.”

He first thought of trying to save the family’s boat, which was moored in the heart of the harbor.

But as he neared the town, he realized the craft would be his last priority – his family would come first.

“I didn’t know the severity of the fire until I got closer,” Kiakona said.

Kiakona told The Post he got his grandma out just a half hour before the flames swept through the town, destroying nearly everything.

Wild winds meant downed power lines and closed roads. Those that remained open soon stacked up with cars looking to escape the conflagration, which was moving in excess of 80 miles per hour

When Kiakona hit the wall of cars – which started about three miles from the town – he knew he had to change tactics.

So he borrowed a friend’s bicycle and began pedaling madly on a footpath that traced the shoreline.

Smoke plumes blotted out the sun, he said, and wrapped itself around him as he rode.

“There was smoke in all directions – it was like something you’d see in a movie,” he said.

Lahaina was almost completely destroyed by the blaze.

“I could feel my legs building up with lactic acid, my lungs were heavy, my heart was pounding,” he said. “But I continued and pushed through it. Pure instinct took over – nothing was going to stop me from getting there to save my family.”

He got to the house and warned his grandma that she needed to leave immediately, and she was able to take off with the tenants.

One of Kiakona’s cousins then came by on a dirtbike, which he hopped on to hitch a ride out.

“By the time we met (just outside Lahaina), their house was gone,” Kiakona said. “I got them out just in time.”

https://nypost.com/2023/08/20/hawaiian-mans-harrowing-journey-to-save-grandma-from-wildfires/