Arica Lynn Souza knew she was running out of time.

It was August 2023, and she was nervously watching as a wildfire inched ever closer to her idyllic oceanside town of Lahaina in west Maui. She was home with her two children and pregnant with a third, waiting for her husband, Matthew, to return from work before making an escape. But as smoke engulfed their house, Souza couldn’t wait any longer. She stuffed her 4-year-old son, Silas, and 2-year-old daughter, Ayla, underneath her shirt and drove down barricaded roads to safety. Matthew Souza, who was stuck in standstill traffic, watched from his car as the fire destroyed his town, killing 102 people in the process.

The family spent a year living at Matthew Souza’s grandmother’s house in another part of Maui. But when she died in mid-2024,

See Full Page