Firefighters in Hawaii fought to save homes while their own houses burned to the ground

WAILUKU, Hawaii − Firefighter Roger Agdeppa was trying to save a house from flames when he found out his grandparent’s home was on fire. Their decades-old home was on the other side of the island in Lahaina. There was nothing the fire captain could do.

He frantically texted and called his relatives to find out if his family had made it out alive. His three aunties had packed up their car to leave, but his 72-year-old mother can’t drive. So she fled on foot.

“So we just kept protecting the house in Kula and that house is still standing,” he said Tuesday. “It is mixed emotions, and I can't even fathom the emotions that the firefighters in Lahaina [must have felt] when they lost their homes.”

Agdeppa is among the hundreds of emergency workers who have been toiling practically nonstop for a week to battle the deadly blazes. Many of them are simultaneously grieving the loss of homes that belonged to them and their families in the historic community of Lahaina, the former capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii. 

Search and rescue workers bear a 'responsibility'

About 30% of the firefighters working last week lost their own homes, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told Hawaii News Now television over the weekend. Agdeppa said he knows at least a dozen firefighters who lost homes in the fires.

As of Monday, Maui County Police Chief John Pelletier said crews have searched 25% of the area affected by the fire for bodies. The search efforts started with one dog, he said, and there are now 20.

Pelletier, who came to Maui from Las Vegas where he led the response to the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, has expressed frustration at the difficulty of identifying remains found amid the rubble and ash in Hawaii.

"We pick up the remains and they fall apart," Pelletier said. "When we find our family and our friends, the remains that we’re finding is through a fire that melted metal.”

Among those assisting in finding and identifying the dead are members of a special federal Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team, deployed by the Department of Health and Human Services. Other search and rescue teams, including from Colorado, Los Angeles and Indianapolis, have been sent and are picking their way through downed power lines, melted cars and collapsed buildings.

Sil Wong, the logistics unit leader for the nonprofit urban search and rescue organization Empact International, came to Maui from Seattle to assess what needs her organization, which has canine and medical units, could fulfill. She wasn't surprised to find that federal officials were tightly restricting access to the most devastated areas, even for trained first responders.

"We have a harder time responding in country than we do internationally, and that's because FEMA doesn't play with other people," she said. Green previously said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has 416 people working in Hawaii.

It can be challenging, but Wong doesn't have time to be frustrated. After countless meetings Tuesday, she needed to pick up her team and find other ways to help residents who may be wary of state and federal officials get the supplies they need.

"I pushed hard for us to be able to come here," she said. "I have a responsibility to my home state in some ways, a heartfelt responsibility."

Disaster response can take a toll, first responders can face stigma

Wong has been a first responder for more than a decade and she said the Maui wildfires will be the 19th major disaster she’s worked. While many who work in the field are naturally good at compartmentalizing, Wong said as someone from Oahu, this tragedy "hits differently."

Disaster response can take a toll. Police officers and firefighters are more likely to die from suicide than in the line of duty, according to a 2022 study from the Ruderman Family Foundation, a private philanthropic organization that advocates for people with disabilities.

John Oliver, the Maui branch chief of the Community Mental Health Center, told USA TODAY this week much of the organization's mental health resources will be directed toward helping first responders after the recent fires. But expertshavesaid first responders may face stigma in the workplace that makes it more difficult to ask for help.

Wong said accessing mental health care resources is starting to become more accepted in the field. The camaraderie on her close-knit team helps with the difficulties of the job, too.

"There's something very real about trauma bonding," she said. "It's almost like people who've gone to combat together. It’s a lifelong bond, and there's nothing that's going to break that."

After an agonizing wait, a first responder's family reunites

After hitchhiking 20 miles, Agdeppa’s mother finally showed up at his home in Kahului. She was so covered in ash and soot that his wife, a registered nurse at Maui Memorial Medical Center, hardly recognized her mother-in-law when she saw her on their Ring doorbell camera.

“My mom's a soldier,” he said with a laugh.

Agdeppa said they're looking forward to rebuilding the home that his grandparents built decades ago. For now, his mother is trying to find a way to get back to her daily routine.

And he's taking a break from work. He said he’s tested positive for COVID-19 and his throat's been bothering him, though he thinks that could be from the fire.

"I'm just going to get home and basically rest today," he said. "I probably need it, huh?"

Contributing: Claire Thornton, Jeanine Santucci, Jorge L. Ortiz,Trevor Hughes, Elizabeth Weise and Cady Stanton; USA TODAY