'Good neighbors': Maui companies jump to aid island community after deadly brush fires

Privateer Space was founded to solve problems in low-Earth orbit. But after Maui experienced the deadliest fires in 100 years, the company headquartered on the island is now focused on problems much closer to home.

Privateer is one of many businesses on the Hawaiian island of Maui helping its community pick up the pieces after deadly brush fires swept across the southern part of the island beginning on Aug. 8. More than 100 were killed, and hundreds remain missing as cadaver dogs search the burn areas for remains.

"We've been doing everything that we can to help kind of from day one," Privateer CEO Alex Fielding told FOX Weather. "When you live on an island - and we're all kind of on an island - we are each other's angels, and the only thing that we can do is count on our neighbors and friends to help us."

Privateer's headquarters are located on Kihei along Maalaea Bay. Further north on the island, is the historic Lahaina, Hawaii's first capital. Rebuilding the town which was wiped out by the fires will take years. 

Even two weeks after the fire, communication on parts of the island is still down, including WiFi and cellphone service.

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Maui companies, including Privateer and the Maui Economic Development Board, have set up mobile WiFi and charging stations in areas of the island still cut off from the rest of the world. SpaceX recently shipped 650 Starlink internet kits to the island, which will be distributed to nonprofits and organizations responding to the fires, adding more WiFi capability while communication infrastructure is repaired.

The stations are recognizable by the bright yellow signs and the people surrounding them on their phones. The stations have helped people reach out to family on the mainland, maybe for the first time. Eight charging stations using Starlink internet and operating 24 hours a day are receiving about 1,000 connections a day, Fielding said. 

With West Maui closed from the rest of the island for two weeks, those operating the charging stations were driving in and out of the exclusion areas before the roads reopened. Fielding said the images on the news don't paint an accurate picture of the devastation. 

"The smell of decomposing humans is what you smell, and the amount of just ash and debris and infrastructure down," Fielding said. "It's almost impossible to comprehend."

Neighbors helping neighbors

Privateer teamed up with other Maui businesses to form a nonprofit called the Makai Foundation to provide relief and resources after the fires. The Makai Foundation is a partnership between 10 companies, including Maui-based construction and building company Alpha Inc., Maui Brewing Co. and Kiawe Outdoor.

About half of Privateer's employees are based in Maui. For some survivors, if they didn't lose their homes, they might have lost their place of work. Fielding said for now, the companies involved in the Makai Foundation are telling their employees to be focused on recovery and helping their neighbors. 

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"Your job right now is to be a first responder and a second responder and do anything you can to help your neighbors. We're going to go and resupply. We're going to continue to provide services and aid and do whatever we can," Fielding said. "That's our job right now is to be good neighbors and be good friends to those around us."

Maui's businesses have jumped to help their community even as their employees and families are recovering from the fires.

Fielding said Alpha Construction and agriculture company Mahi Pono have been trucking in food, fuel and supplies to West Maui every day with help from Maui police escorts. 

Maui Brewing Co. set up donation sites at its locations in Klhei on Maui and Kalua and Waikiki on Oahu. 

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Another fund called Legacy of Aloha was started to help Maui Brewing Co. and local restaurant employees who have been displaced and lost their belongings to the fires. After the fires, Maui Brewing Co. locations in Kahana and Ka'anapali in West Maui are closed until further notice. 

'Total housing shortage'

As FEMA, National Guard and Red Cross resources have been deployed by the thousands in Maui; Fielding said it's the local response that will carry residents through in the long term.

The immediate goals of the Makai Foundation include basic needs: food, shelter and communication. In the long-term, Fielding said the foundation wants to help residents rebuild.

"We already had an affordable housing shortage; now we just have a total housing shortage," Fielding said. 

Real estate investors and others have been offering to buy the scorched land when people's emotions run high. Fielding said some of the land has been in Hawaiian families for generations. 

"Not only if you don't have insurance, could you never afford to rebuild. I mean, in Maui County, the average build cost here is like $350 a foot," Fielding said. "To rebuild here, it's very expensive, the permitting process is very long, and there are vultures descending on the island asking these families that can't afford to rebuild, 'Why don't you just sell your land?'"

The Makai Foundation and other local organizations will come up with a plan to make sure there are resources to keep Hawaiian lands in their hands to continue handing down for generations.