Santa Rosa wildfire survivors brave Maui flames on honeymoon
HONOLULU - Two Santa Rosa honeymooners evacuated from the fires in Maui said the disaster brought back terrible memories of the 2017 Tubbs Fire, but noted their experience helped them survive the latest frightening ordeal.
Courtney Frazer and Aldo Vargas tied the knot at a local beach last Friday. They flew into Maui on Monday.
On Tuesday, from their hotel room, they saw a fire in the distance and high winds.
"It completely brought memories back from the 2017 fires," said Vargas.
"The wind was more powerful in Maui than Santa Rosa (in the Tubbs Fire)," said Frazer, who was living in Petaluma in 2017.
Within hours, the flames on the island were raging out of control. Their hotel, just outside of Lahaina, had no information since they lost power and had very little cell signal.
They could see flames getting closer and closer.
"I even called my family to say goodbye to them, too, because I really wasn't sure that I was gonna make out of it," said Vargas.
"For me, I was really just trying to stay calm," recalled Frazer. "We were watching the fire from our hotel room. We took turn sleeping in the lobby since we couldn't get any information from the room."
Frazer said she was prepared to jump into the ocean if it meant survival.
"With the high winds and with the experience from the Santa Rosa fires, (we thought) we'd be much safer getting out of the area," said Frazer.
Vargas, who evacuated from the Bennett Valley neighborhood in Santa Rosa in the Tubbs Fire, went and got food and filled up as much water as he could. They took a narrow back road Wednesday morning to reach the Maui airport. They slept in their rental car as they tried to get a flight out. They finally reached Honolulu on Thursday. The couple did the zoom interview with KPIX 5 as they waited at the Honolulu airport Friday morning for a flight back to The Oakland Airport.
"I felt like it was worse (in Maui) just because there's really only two ways to go out, and one way was completely shut down and closed. In Santa Rosa, there were at least multiple ways out," said Frazer.
They and Santa Rosa firefighters said there are a lot of similarities between the Maui fires and the Tubbs Fire: both were wind-driven and destroyed densely populated neighborhoods.
"Just looking at blocks and blocks of not just homes, but businesses destroyed. That's exactly what we saw in the Coffey Park area, just businesses that you would've never imagined would be the victim of a wildfire just destroyed," said Santa Rosa Fire Department Division Chief and Fire Marshal Paul Lowenthal.
Lowenthal lost his home in the Tubbs Fire. Given the department's experience, he said they are ready to offer any kind of search and rescue support.
"What we want to be able to do is help those communities that unfortunately have gone through something similar to what we have, to learn from some of our mistakes, but also learn from what worked for us to help them on a path to hopefully a quick and expedient recovery," said Division Chief Lowenthal.
Frazer and Vargas want to raise awareness. They hop people in the Bay Area will donate and offer help with the Maui rebuilding efforts.
"Yeah, it was our honeymoon. But we're okay. We're safe. We're together, and we can always take another trip somewhere else. Really, our hearts just go out to all the people of Lahaina, their families," said Frazer.
Frazer texted to KPIX 5 a photo of the couple in an airplane Friday evening. They were on their way back, scheduled to arrive at The Oakland Airport late Friday night.