Family lost everything in Maui wildfires, Charlotte woman says. Here’s how to help.

Joe Marusak
·2 min read
Charlotte resident Jessie Haynes is raising donations for the Lazarte family, who lost everything in the Aug. 8 Maui wildfires. At far left is Melissa Lazarte, the fiancee of Haynes’ cousin, Fred Seemann.

As wildfires raged on Maui Aug. 8, Jessie Haynes in Charlotte received a family group text from her cousin, a longtime resident of the Hawaiian island.

“I love you,” Fred Seemann said. “We don’t know if we’ll be OK. We’re fleeing the fires, and there are not many safe places to go.”

At least 110 people have been confirmed dead in the fires, The Associated Press reported late Wednesday.

Flames spared Seemann’s condo in the city of Kīhei on Maui’s southwest shore. Yet his fiancee, Melissa Lazarte, her mom, three sisters and two brothers live in the fire-ravaged city of Lahaina in northwest Maui and lost everything, Haynes told The Charlotte Observer on Wednesday.

“Completely devastated,” Haynes said, referring to images of Lahaina on video that her cousin and the Lazartes sent her. “Nothing but ashes, the entire community of Lahaina.”

Haynes taught music at Smithfield Elementary School in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools for 10 years before joining Catawba Ridge High School in Fort Mill this school year as choral director.

The Lazartes have lived on Maui for five or six generations, Haynes said. Her cousin is from Tampa Bay, Florida, fell in love with Maui years ago and decided to stay. He operates an e-bike rental business, Maui Bike Rentals.

The family managed to evacuate, but they witnessed “apocalyptic conditions” that included residents and tourists leaping from flame-engulfed hotels and businesses and seeking safety in the ocean, Haynes said on a GoFundMe she established for the Lazartes.

By Thursday, she raised $12,000 for the family on the site.

Haynes said she previously visited her cousin and the Lazartes in Maui.

“You’ll never meet a more loving and tight-knit family,” she said. “They’ve lived in their home since 2011 as a multi-generational family and are now completely uprooted and left void of everything.”

The youngest member is 6-year-old Kaiden, who has said how sad he is that his home is gone, she said.

Six family members are now crammed into her cousin’s 750-square-foot, two-bedroom condo, she said.

Being 4,600 miles away, Haynes figured the best way to help was through GoFundMe. Mauians like the Lazartes most immediately need toiletries, which financial donations raised on her site would help provide, among other needs, she said.

“I know we can come together and rally for the Lazarte family!” Haynes posted on the site. “Let’s AMAZE them with generosity and help them in every way we can.”