Images of a red-roofed house in Lahaina have gone viral this week. The stark contrast of a single, bright home in the middle of the devastation left behind in Maui’s wildfire is a head turner. But the story behind how a 100-year-old wooden house stood untouched by the blaze is earning even more attention.
As of Tuesday, the confirmed death toll reached 115 victims with as many as 850 people still unaccounted for more than two weeks after the fire. Trip Millikin, who owns the house and moved to Lahaina more than a decade ago, happened to be on the Mainland when the fire occurred. When he and his wife heard that their whole neighborhood had been reduced to ashes, they assumed the home they bought just a few years ago was gone too. But when aerial footage of the area started to circulate they noticed that their house and its bright red roof were still standing.
“We started crying,” Millikin told Honolulu Civil Beat. “I felt guilty. We still feel guilty.”
The 100-year-old house reportedly used to be a bookkeeper’s home for employees of a sugar plantation. When the Millikins bought it, they restored the property with repairs like switching out the asphalt roof with heavy gauge metal and removing some of the foliage that surrounded it. They even surrounded the house with river stones. The pair says none of the repairs were made with fire safety in mind, but it’s believed those exact renovations are what kept the old house from catching fire.
The Millikins say they plan to return to Maui when it’s safe, knowing that rebuilding Lahaina is going to be a long journey for the entire community. Although they’ve admitted to feeling guilty that their home was spared, they say it will serve as a community hub.
“Let’s rebuild this together,” Trip says. “This house will become a base for all of us. Let’s use it.”
