Former Maui man grabs belongings, children to flee from fast-moving fire
St. Anthony graduate evacuates with family, is safe, prays home is still standing
Former Maui resident David Rivera built a successful career renovating homes in Paradise, Calif., and even hosted, with his wife, Chenoa, a home-flipping TV show series, “Rustic Rehab,” on HGTV.
But on Friday, he was praying that a massive wildfire had not reduced his home and business to ashes.
After getting urgent calls and messages Thursday morning that he needed to evacuate immediately from the wildfire’s raging flames and smoke, he escaped from his home, grabbing a few belongings, his 2-year-old son, 17-year-old daughter and the family’s 8-yearold male Pomeranian dog, Porter.
On Friday afternoon, the 2001 St. Anthony Junior-Senior High School graduate talked with The Maui News by cellphone from the safety of an in-law’s home in nearby Chico, but he said the air quality was poor and he was taking his reunited family, including his wife and a 5-year-old son, to stay at a hotel in Sacramento.
“The smoke is so bad; it’s not
safe for the children,” he said. “You go outside, and you can barely breathe. It’s really bad.”
Also with the family is David’s father, Fred Rivera of Kahului, who was visiting at the time the fire broke out.
“He’s going to go where we go,” David Rivera said.
Reflecting on what had happened in a little more 24 hours, he said: “Yesterday and today have been kind of a crazy scramble. We’ll figure out lodging.”
And, because evacuated residents were nowhere near their homes, the uncertainty of the Rivera home — located near the iconic town “Welcome to Paradise” sign, was “very nerve-wracking,” he said. “Pretty much the whole town is up in flames. We just feel heartbroken and sad . . . It’s completely devastating to see the tragedy that’s happened.”
Rivera said officials have not released the names of the five people found dead in their burned-out vehicles, but he said he’s not received word of any close friends who’re missing.
All the local businesses burned down, he said, and much of the disaster is being played out on Facebook postings.
“You don’t want to go on Facebook because it’s just tragedy after tragedy,” he said.
On Facebook, there are pictures of the “Welcome to Paradise” sign on fire, and “what’s scary” is that “my house is right there, right next to it.”
Rivera said he’s hopeful his house might survive because there are a lot of fire hydrants nearby, and “there’s a really big fire break with my house.”
As he spoke on his cellphone outside in Chico, located west of Paradise, a small community of 26,000 people, the sky was “dark and gloomy,” he said. The scene reminded him of growing up on Maui when sugar cane fields would be burned and ash would rain down from the sky.
Rivera said he first learned about the fire at home around 8:30 or 9 a.m. when “people were calling me and telling me there’s a big fire.”
Outside, he could see a “black, orange cloud,” he said. “It just looked really scary.”
He said he went into “panic mode.” He packed bags with one change of clothes, grabbed his driver’s license, passport and one family picture, and “we got out of there.”
“We literally just packed up everything, got in the car and got down to Chico as fast as we could,” he said. “I said a prayer that my house wouldn’t be burned down.”
He had his 2-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter with him. Earlier Thursday, his wife had taken their 5-year-old son to school in Chico.
At first, he was evacuated to his wife’s aunt’s house in Chico, but later the family went to an uncle’s house south of Chico in Durham. But, as the fire advanced, mandatory evacuations were announced for Durham as well. Eventually, the family went as far west as Orland to stay Thursday night with his wife’s sister, he said.
Then, on Friday, it seemed that firefighters had more control of the blaze and it was safe to return to Chico with the hope of being able to check on the family home in Paradise, he said.
“That’s not going to happen,” he said, because authorities are not allowing residents back into the area.
Rivera said he can only imagine the worst for businesses and contractors that have worked with him and his wife in their home renovation business.
“Everybody who does business with me and my wife, almost everybody lost their homes,” he said.
Rivera said he had a couple of houses coming to market soon, and “I’m pretty sure they’re burned down.”
He said he has insurance, at least, but the aftermath of the fire will mean his business will change completely. Instead of renovating homes, he’ll likely be involved in rebuilding them.
“It’s going to be really different,” he said.
Rivera said he’s not considering returning to Maui, although he was born and raised on the island.
“I love it there,” he said. “It will always be home.”
But after starting a family in Paradise, he’s fallen in love with the community there, he said. And, it’s taken him six years to build his business to the point where he and his wife have multiple people working with them.
“I can’t leave the town now when it’s at its lowest state,” he said. “It’s part of our family. I’m with the community. I’ve got to do whatever I can to help build it back.”
However, because of the exposure Paradise and the Riveras have received on the “Rustic Rehab” TV program, people from throughout the United States know about the town.
“We’ve been getting just tons of support from people who’ve seen our show,” he said.
The prayers from strangers for the people of Paradise have been “heartwarming and comforting,” he said. “They feel for the community in Paradise.”
The Maui News published a story about the Riveras’ homeflipping TV series on Sept. 17.