With ashen destruction in every direction dominating the landscape in Lahaina, Hawaii, a direct result of the devastating Maui wildfires, there is one house that stands out as if it had been photoshopped into the picture.
The $4 million white seaside home features a red roof and appears to have weathered the fires unscathed while homes all around were burned to the ground, but how?
Dubbed the “miracle house,” the house is one of the few things that did survive and the homeowners believe recent innovations may have played a role in their good fortune amid so much death and destruction — the current death toll stands at 114 and there are reportedly around 1,000 people missing. Officials expect the final death toll to be around 500 people.
Dora Atwater Millikin and her husband Dudley Long Millikin III own the home and recently replaced the asphalt roof with a heavy-gauge metal one, and reduced foliage outside the home. But the efforts were intended to reduce the risk of termites spreading to the house, not fireproofing it.
“It’s a 100 percent wood house so it’s not like we fireproofed it or anything,” Dora told the Los Angeles Times.
The couple was in Massachusetts visiting family when the fire began a week and a half ago and were informed by local authorities that their house had survived.
“When all this was happening, 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,” Dora told the newspaper. “They would hit people’s roofs, and if it was an asphalt roof, it would catch on fire. And otherwise, they would fall off the road and then ignite the foliage around the house.”
As noted by the Daily Mail, roofs “are the primary factor contributing to a home’s flammability, because they are the largest surface area upon which embers can land.”
The Millikins believe the choice to go with a metal roof saved the home. Perhaps. Or was it just luck? Or a sudden shift in the winds at just the right moment? Regardless, the home now stands out like a beacon in a landscape of ash, a reminder of better days that offers a vision of hope to Lahaina residents facing the daunting task of rebuilding.
As for miracles, the wildfires also spared the historic Maria Lanakil Catholic Church, which has stood for more than 175 years:
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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