But in the immediate aftermath of the fires, before official forces had mobilised, Kekahuna already had. She and her friend, Duke Sparks, devised their own response within hours. Sparks shut down his central Maui restaurant, calling in staff to make hot meals for shelters and emergency responders, and the two collected donations for evacuees. And - within a day - they had organised an impromptu team of truck drivers to transport that aid to Lahaina, moving in and out of the devastated town more than a dozen times even when official routes were closed.

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