How ‘miracle house’ with red roof survived Maui wildfires
22 August 2023, 10:31 | Updated: 22 August 2023, 10:32
The owners of a house in Maui which survived the devastating wildfires have spoken out - explaining how they think their property managed to escape the inferno mostly unscathed.
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The $4m seaside home was largely undamaged - with a picture of it standing alone among burnt out homes going viral.
Authorities contacted the homeowners after the flames had died down to say their home survived - and it has since been dubbed the ‘miracle house’.
The property’s owners said they made some updates to the house that may have helped it resist the flames.
Owner Dora Atwater Millikin told the LA Times she and her husband replaced the house’s asphalt roof with a heavy guage metal roof, and had spend some time removing foliage and other plants near the house because they were worried about the risk of termites.
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Ms Atwater Millikin said: “There were pieces of wood - six, 12, inches long - that were on fire and just almost floating through the air with the wind and everything.
“They would hit people’s roofs, and if it was an asphalt roof, it would catch on fire. Otherwise they would fall off the road and then ignite the foliage around the house.”
"It's a 100% wood house, so it's not like we fireproofed it or anything,” she added.
114 people are confirmed to have died in the fires.
Officials say some 850 people are missing, but over 1,200 people have been found safe.
Mr Millikin and his wife feared they house would have been burnt to the ground but they were amazed to see aerial footage showing their property still intact.
“We started crying,” he told local news outlet Honolulu Civil Beat. “I felt guilty. We still feel guilty.”
