Braintree family arrives back home after fleeing Hawaii wildfires

BOSTON — A Braintree family is home at last, safe and sound after a harrowing few days in Maui.

“I think we are still coming to understand the magnitude of everything that happened,” said Chris Ricci who just returned from a family vacation to Hawaii.

Chris and Mary Ricci and their two children, eight-year-old Alexandra and six-year-old Caleb say the trip started off as a dream vacation in Oahu.

They then island-hopped to Maui to commemorate the couple’s 10th anniversary on the island. That’s when the unthinkable happened as fires swept across Maui.

“On Tuesday night when everything was really active and uncertain, we could see different areas that were on fire,” said Mary Ricci.

The family was stuck in their car and couldn’t get to their hotel on the other side of Lahaina.

“We were stuck in traffic, couldn’t move, couldn’t go forward because that was heading towards Lahaina,” said Mary Ricci.

And they had no way to reach their family.

“Power lines were down, everything is down our families had no idea that we were ok,” she added.

Soon they found an evacuation center at a local high school.

“We got stuck on the other side of the island. We stayed in our car a couple of nights at the evacuation center,” she said.

The Wi-Fi worked there and Mary connected with family and found flights home.  As they collected their belongings, they realized the extent of damage from the firestorms.

“We were able finally before we caught our flight to get through to where we were staying so we could get all of our things. As we were driving through we saw a lot of the rubble and the aftermath,” said Chris.

This couple and their two kids who went on a dream vacation to mark a milestone are just happy to be home.

“We get to go home. That’s the thing. We get to go home a lot of people don’t,” said Mary.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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