The Troubled History of Hawaii and the Lahaina Fire Cover-up

By Arnie Suntag

There are few who have not heard about the catastrophic fire in Hawaii. The Lahaina fire has been characterized as the deadliest in the United States in over a century. The graphic images and heartbreaking personal accounts are being unceasingly echoed throughout mainstream media. Along with this, every media outlet is consistently referring to the decimation in Lahaina as a natural disaster. But this is not the truth. It is not a natural disaster. It is in fact man-made – and not in the way you might think. There is a dark and painful history behind the consequences that thousands are now facing, and few outside of Hawaii are aware of it. The real behind-the-scenes story is nearly as startling as the horrific loss of life from the fire itself – the scope of which has still not been entirely quantified.

The devastation from the Lahaina fire is very painful to me, even more so than my personal experience with the September 11 tragedy. Lahaina has a very special meaning in my life. I have always viewed it as the place that saved my life after I returned from China in 2003 with SARS – the original coronavirus that made Covid-19 look like the common cold. I almost died. Were it not for God’s providence in opening a way for me to arrange emergency transport to Maui from China, I would probably not have survived. I subsequently recovered in the Lahaina area. Just a couple of years later, my wife and I moved to Maui, where we became friends with families who lived in Lahaina. Although we lived in Hana and subsequently in Koali at the time, we were frequently involved with members of the Lahaina and Kihei Seventh-day Adventist churches, along with the Kahului church, where I would typically speak. We later moved to Kohala, on the Big Island, where we started a sanitarium primarily to provide a resource to help Hawaiians curb the diabetes epidemic along with other chronic diseases that had become rampant. Hawaii is home to us, and we miss our dear family on the islands. Sadly, we do not know if our friends from Lahaina are dead or alive at the time of this writing. If the human tragedy of this horrific fire is not bad enough, the loss of a vital part of Hawaii’s history is truly devastating.

There is a grim reality nobody is talking about that explains why the Lahaina fire was so destructive and why such fires are likely to happen again in the future. It is a story that few, other than perhaps native Hawaiians, would even want to hear. It is the proverbial elephant in the room. Sure, many of us have heard the so-called conspiracy theories. There are serious questions about how exactly the fire started. Then there is the rather peculiar fact that the Maui police chief, John Pelletier, was also the incident commander for the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting – the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. The management of that situation was badly botched, and many died needlessly. There is also Governor Green’s anti-housing proclamation that came out in July, which could essentially appropriate land from residents if the government needs to rezone. Then, of course, there is the $75 million housing project proposed by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands in January that would be built on the same section of Lahaina that just burned up. There have also been discussions about Maui becoming a poster child for the 15-minute city concept, which would obviously require significant clearing of land and rebuilding of infrastructure. Most notably of all, there are the sirens that never sounded, the fire hydrants that had no water, and, of course, one of the largest military bases in the country less than 100 miles away that failed to deploy a single piece of equipment to rescue those who leaped into the ocean to escape the fire. While there may indeed be rational explanations for such bizarre irregularities, any excuse given would amount to nothing more than a moot point considering the number of lives that have been lost.

On the surface, there are only two conclusions one can reasonably reach about the collage of disjointed events surrounding the Lahaina fire: either there was a nefarious agenda behind these purported coincidences, or they are among the most glaring examples of incompetence we have ever witnessed in history. Regardless of your perspective, the end result is unfortunately still the same. That having been said, there is actually a much more profound and long-standing historical explanation for the fire’s devastation that our self-professed illustrious leaders will never acknowledge. It is a result of greed and a flagrant disrespect for the history and culture of the Hawaiian people.

Encroachment that has occurred for centuries has forever changed the course of life in Hawaii. Between the introduction of non-native crops and livestock, the overdevelopment by real estate moguls and mega corporations, and the militarization by our own government, a catastrophe was set in motion a long time ago that has now resulted in what should be a wake-up call for the entire world. For too long, people have salivated over the prospect of visiting or living in a “paradise” like Hawaii, while at the same time disrespecting the culture and the people who are the rightful inheritors of the land. Many of the tourists who visit Hawaii have absolutely no understanding of Hawaiian history or culture, nor do they care to. The plight of the Hawaiian people is of even less concern to them.

Years ago, my wife and I visited with friends on Oahu, where we could not help but notice the vast number of tents dotting a major beach on the Waianae Coast – perhaps one of the most beautiful stretches of beach in the world. Most tourists would initially see this as a fantastic idea – a golden opportunity to camp out on the beach. But what they do not realize is that the tents contain homeless Hawaiians who could not afford the astronomical real estate prices and exorbitant rents in order to live on their own island. Just a couple of years ago, coordinated efforts by island officials were made to remove the encampments, sending the homeless into the hills or, for the few who were fortunate enough, into shelters or “affordable” housing units. How did this tragedy happen?

Beginning in the early part of the 1800’s, New England and European missionaries arrived in Hawaii. By the middle of the 19th century, there were frame homes constructed, horse-drawn carriages, schools, churches, and other infrastructure that previously did not exist. However, despite what may have been sincere intentions, the missionaries brought with them their food, their customs, and, unfortunately, their diseases – illnesses that the native Hawaiians, an epidemiologically “virgin population,” had never been exposed to before. The practice of living off the land that the Hawaiians had followed for centuries was now supplanted by foods from other parts of the world, resulting in a direct assault on their immune systems. The illnesses brought in by outsiders spread, and the Hawaiian population was decimated. Some historians say that 80–90 percent of the population died. In the years that followed, a strong but powerful “white” minority exerted substantial political influence over the Hawaiian monarchy (King Kamehameha III), and the impact of colonialism permanently altered life in Hawaii. French, British, and U.S. interests continued to grow, eventually yielding way to the U.S. with a free-trade agreement established in 1875. In 1887, the U.S. received exclusive rights to establish a military base at Pearl Harbor. President William McKinley annexed the Hawaiian Islands as a U.S. territory in 1900. After decades of political struggle and further encroachment by the U.S. and others into the agricultural arena and the housing market, Hawaii finally became the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959.

During the long history of involvement by outsiders in Hawaii, crops and livestock were brought in to supply the foreign economies. Many invasive species took over the island. Commercial agriculture grew, and Hawaii became a major supplier of sugar and pineapple. Dole and Del Monte moved most of their pineapple production out of Hawaii in the 1980s. In 2016, the last sugar mill closed. Hundreds of employees were laid off, creating more unemployment and poverty. Thousands of acres of land used to grow these products have sat fallow for years on an island where the cost of land is sky high and there is a severe housing shortage, especially following the Lahaina fire. The companies involved did little to help clean up the mess in the aftermath of their departure, and the vacant land became subject to erosion. The frenzy to use Hawaii as a source of these agricultural products also helped to create battles over water rights, which continue to this day and may have heavily contributed to the lack of water during the fire.

An important factor in the Lahaina fire involves the island of Kaho’olawe. Often referred to as the most bombed island in the Pacific, the U.S. Army leased a small section of the island from cattle ranchers for $1.00 a year in May of 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. took over the entire island and never gave it back. In the years that followed, the island was used for target practice, and the military bombed the daylights out of it. Protests by Hawaiians began in 1976, but it was not until 1990 that President George H.W. Bush declared a stop to the bombing. Three years later, Congress voted to give the island back to Hawaii, cease all bombing activities, and allot funds to restore the island. However, the restoration was not completed and has been an ongoing challenge for the Hawaiian agencies involved. Unexploded ordnance can still be found on the island.

The problem with Kaho’olawe and its relationship to the Lahaina fire, is that the island has been literally decimated. Historically, the west side of Maui, where Lahaina is located, relied upon the presence of Kaho’olawe, a close neighbor, whose foliage and accumulated moisture helped to keep West Maui green and less dry. Unfortunately, the years of bombing and destruction reduced Kaho’olawe to basically a desolate pile of rocks on the ocean, somewhat resembling the lunar surface. This destruction, without question, contributed to the extremely dry conditions that helped stoke the fire in Lahaina.

The preceding, and many more incursions into Hawaiian life than I can possibly cover in this article, spawned the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement that began during the 1970’s. It is a grassroots political and cultural movement to establish Hawaii as an independent, sovereign nation. Part of its intent is to reverse the many decades of intrusion and encroachment on Hawaiian soil and into the lives of the Hawaiian people.

Despite the pushback by a large number of Hawaiians, the “haoles”, the Hawaiian term for outsiders, keep coming. Major real estate developers keep scooping up large swaths of land, and the wealthy continue to acquire acreages equivalent to small cities. Silicon Valley and Hollywood celebrities have been notorious for this. Larry Ellison, the billionaire, purchased 98 percent of the island of Lanai (87,000 acres) in 2012 for a reported $300 million. Bill Gates owns at least 2,000 acres of prime land in Hana. Jeff Bezos owns a $78 million 14-acre estate on Maui, in Hana. The list of Hollywood celebrities that have homes on Maui most notably includes Oprah Winfrey, Morgan Freeman, Will Smith, Juila Roberts, Jim Carrey, Helen Hunt, Kelsey Grammer, and many more. Collectively, they own thousands of acres of Maui land. Most of the enormous estates are second, third, or fourth homes, in which they do not often live. This is one of the key reasons Maui land has become scarce, real estate prices have become artificially inflated, the cost of goods and services has skyrocketed, and Hawaiians have become displaced – unable to live on their own island. Now, faced with an enormous influx of Lahaina residents made homeless by the fire, it is anyone’s guess as to how these thousands of Hawaiians are going to survive.

Wages in Hawaii have not even come close to keeping pace with the cost of living, thus creating a strong impetus for seeking work elsewhere. Most Hawaiians have to work two or three jobs just to make ends meet. They live paycheck to paycheck. As home and commodity prices ramped up over the years and housing became scarce, many highly educated and skilled Hawaiians left the islands in search of better jobs and a lower cost of living elsewhere. This created a gap, which was subsequently filled by less experienced individuals, many of whom are outsiders – often from other countries. This is yet another reason for the rather dire outcome of the Lahaina fire. The competency level of those involved in managing the crisis and its aftermath created a quagmire that cost many their lives. A good example is Herman Andaya, head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, whose job responsibilities were way over his head. Perhaps he was made a scapegoat for others’ failings, but he did not have the experience or expertise to fill that role. His failure to sound the sirens to warn residents of the impending disaster was predicated on the most flimsy and indefensible argument. But he is not alone. The level of incompetence and mismanagement that created a death trap for Lahaina residents is almost unprecedented. In our time living in Hawaii, my wife and I encountered many bureaucrats who were poorly trained or lacked the expertise to hold the positions they occupied. It was a stunning revelation that led us to have a deep concern for others living on the islands.

The worst part of the untold story of Hawaii is the lack of true compassion by those who are in some way responsible for the consequences arising from the Lahaina fire. Many in Lahaina lost literally everything they owned. In a seemingly altruistic act, some Hollywood celebrities and Silicon Valley oligarchs pledged to make a large donation to “the rebuilding of Lahaina.” But, while it may seem generous to them and perhaps to others, the fact remains that the donations involved are pocket change for them. It is an empty gesture, particularly since they have arguably had a hand in the way life for the Hawaiians has deteriorated over the decades – the price of real estate, housing shortages, the cost of goods, and the overall quality of life. Furthermore, one must wonder how these donated funds will be earmarked. Will they be used to directly help those who lost everything in the fire, or will they be used to rebuild in a way that enhances the attractiveness and desirability of the island, thus maintaining or even enhancing the value of their real estate investments? The Biden Administration is another culprit in this gratuitous effort to help the fire victims. Biden has pledged to send $700 per household to Maui fire victims, while at the same time sending billions of dollars to Ukraine. Even the liberal media has criticized this insulting illustration of hypocrisy.

And finally, there is the complete lack of understanding and concern that some tourists exhibit toward those who live in Hawaii. They do not respect the people, their customs, or their land. This could not be better illustrated than by the tourists who decided to swim and snorkel in the waters off Lahaina while there are still dead bodies of fire victims that have not been recovered. What a lack of respect and reverence for those families who are suffering from such losses! And then, of course, there are the real estate developers and investors who are calling Lahaina fire victims and offering to purchase their property while the smoke is still rising from the ruins and the families are freshly grieving their losses. There cannot be anything more appalling than this. This compassionless, ambulance-chasing, opportunistic behavior should be called out on a global scale.

The unceasing refrain of those in leadership and the media flaunting the climate change narrative to “justify” or explain away the degree of carnage that occurred in Lahaina is a complete ruse. It is simply more of the same subterfuge that characterizes the political landscape in America today. The fact is, when you consider how the dire consequences of the fire came about, they all have blood on their hands. They will never acknowledge their complicity in aiding and abetting those who are responsible for this fiasco, or the circumstances that created it. The bold pronouncements they make are nothing more than a heavily leveraged political agenda. After all, it is a well-established practice in the political arena these days not to let a good crisis go to waste. The very term “climate change” is absurd when objectively evaluating earth’s history with climate dynamics. Granted, we have known about the greenhouse effect that was catapulted into the public eye by the environmental movements of the 1970s, but the cause of the Lahaina fire cannot be blamed on a purportedly global climate crisis. And it certainly cannot be blamed on Hurricane Dora, which passed hundreds of miles to the south. The real reason for the catastrophic fire is quite specific and clearly identifiable. The insatiable greed over the centuries created the perfect storm that destroyed Lahaina. The standard mantra of climate change is only a cover – a plausible-sounding explanation for the uninitiated so that they will accept whatever their authoritarian leaders promote, including 15-minute cities and climate lockdowns.

While people bicker over the motives of government officials and the obvious flaws in the handling of the fire response, the real long-standing historical truth continues to remain buried from an uninformed public and an unsympathetic tourist industry that, while providing jobs and revenue, is simultaneously ravaging the landscape in Hawaii and the lives of its people. Indeed, the real cause of the catastrophe in Lahaina is the greed and the disrespect for those who live there, and the ongoing feeding frenzy that threatens to take their land from them. It is the hallmark of a godless society that condones the idea that the end justifies the means, regardless of the human consequences.

“Today, crime of every kind is practiced in order to obtain money. Selfishness, deceit, robbery, and bloodshed are making this world a veritable Sodom, and its inhabitants as the inhabitants of the antediluvian world. In the greed for possession, God’s law is transgressed. But retribution will overtake the wrongdoers. Riches cannot save one soul from death. He who gives himself up to work the works of Satan creates a force of evil that he cannot repress. There is a false religion, endangering the souls of all who advance it, which teaches that selfish pleasure and enjoyment is the sum of happiness. {Signs of the Time, June 21, 1899}

The devastation caused by the Lahaina fire will always stand as one of the most glaring examples of the avarice that has engulfed our society. Prayers and support are sorely needed for the families that have lost their homes, their possessions, and their loved ones.

About the author: Arnie Suntag is the founder and president of Walk of Faith, an organization that conducts seminars and educational series on health and disease prevention and provides outreach services to the community. For inquiries or comments call (866) 359-2640 or email Arnie Suntag at arniesuntag@walkoffaithmedia.org.