Family ready to move into first home rebuilt in Lahaina after wildfire

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A Lahaina family will have a new home to celebrate the holidays.
The Ah Hee family will move into their newly rebuilt home on Komo Mai Street; the first to be completed after fire devastated the town last August.
Thanks to an expedited permitting process, their three-bedroom, two-bathroom home took roughly six months to build and passed its final inspection Friday.
“I had no idea that it was going to be this fast,” said Ariel Ah Hee. “I was thinking at least two to three years, and so even when we started building in July, the fact that I’m here before Thanksgiving was wild.”
The Ah Hees have two boys, Manaiakalani, 6, and Kaiakea, 3.
“I’m just so grateful, but the word grateful itself honestly doesn’t justify how grateful I truly feel. I feel really blessed, truly,” Ah Hee said.
“I want others to know that everything is going to be okay, and it’s going to work, and we’re going to do it, and we’re going to do it all together, and Lahaina is here for you. All of Maui is here for you,” Ah Hee said.
Maui Mayor Richard Bissen, Jr. said more than 120 homes are currently being rebuilt in Lahaina, including an 89-unit apartment building, with 254 building permits submitted.
“This serves as a symbol of resilience and unwavering determination of how our people will rise from what has happened here,” Bissen said.
Bissen said the Ah Hee family’s “courage and their perseverance throughout this process and throughout the rebuild is just a testament to their love and their solidarity and the support that they’ve gotten from their families, their neighbors, their friends, the volunteers and all the others who’ve come to make this day possible today.”
Ah Hee’s father-in-law, Snake Ah Hee, is an original Hokuleʻa crew member.
During Friday’s blessing, the new home was referred to as a Hoku Paʻa, or North Star, to represent a light now shining in this town, guiding residents back home.
Copyright 2024 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.