'Devastated' Hawaii Woman Races Against Time to Survive Wildfire: 'I Didn't Want to Leave'
"It grew so fast, it was just unbelievable," Kelley Chapman, owner of Manakai Swimwear, told PEOPLE
Courtesy of Kelley Chapman
A business owner in Hawaii will forever feel the impact of the island's devastating wildfires.
The Maui wildfires began on Tuesday. On Thursday, authorities announced that the death toll had risen to at least 53 people and rescue efforts remain underway, per the Associated Press.
Kelley Chapman, a swimwear designer and the owner of Manakai Swimwear tells PEOPLE that Lahaina is a "really special town" and a "special tight community" filled with close to 9,000 people. Her home was in an old neighborhood filled with plumeria, fruit, and mango trees, surrounded by amazing neighbors. It contained "beautiful wooden floors" with "a lot of personality," which made her not want to leave as the wildfires quickly spread, engulfing the historic town.
"My husband had to literally grab me and shake some common sense into me," Chapman, 43, says.
Chapman and her husband Vini Pimenta fled with their two cats, Samhein and Sheba, and pet chicken Freedalynn, she tells PEOPLE.
Related: Everything to Know About the 2023 Hawaii Wildfires, Including Ways to Help the Victims
Chapman has been in business since 2015, she tells PEOPLE, but in 2018 she signed both leases for her home and store.
"We got our house and my store [on] the exact same day, and we lost it [on] the exact same day," Chapman says. "It was pretty wild."
Courtesy of Kelley Chapman
The COVID-19 pandemic and a cycling accident involving Pimenta left Chapman in the rebuilding stages of her business. Now, she has to start again, creating a GoFundMe in hopes of collecting money because her business was uninsured.
Her experience when the wildfires began started when she received a call from a fellow store owner who knew she lived nearby.
"Kelley, our building alarm is going off. Can you go?'" she recalled to PEOPLE. "Because she knows I'm really close. I don't think other people on the rest of the island realized the heavy amount of wind that we were receiving." Chapman says the strong winds made driving much more difficult.
Courtesy of Kelley Chapman
"I got in my car and I quickly drove down Front Street and I started noticing traffic heading towards my store started kind of slowly coming to a halt," she tells PEOPLE. "My tree in my yard fell down right next to my car. There was trees down, awnings were completely torn off. "
Related: How to Help Pets and Rescue Animals Affected by the Hawaii Wildfires
Thinking someone might have also broken into the building, Chapman pulled her car off to the side of the road only to witness smoke coming directly in her direction.
Courtesy of Kelley Chapman
"It was right up at the smoke shop and I started seeing ashes flying. And I knew from my experience from 2018 when we had a fire during a tropical storm that it was quite dangerous. So, I just went and I looked at my store and then I heard a massive explosion and then I said, 'Holy sh--, this is not going to be good,' because I started seeing it growing really quick. I mean, 70-mile-per-hour winds and fire. I just knew it was really bad."
Related: Hawaii Wildfire Death Toll Rises to 53 as Residents Describe Racing Against Time to Leave
Faced with the reality in front of her, she tells PEOPLE that she "decided to go let all the people that were stuck in traffic know that they needed to quickly turn around."
"I was just trying to let everyone know that there was a fire coming," she explains. "I let all my neighbors know. And then I finally got to my house and I looked at my husband and I said, 'This is not good.' By the time I got back to my house, the amount of flames and smoke and everything exploding was... it grew so fast, it was just unbelievable."
Courtesy of Kelley Chapman
Chapman tells PEOPLE that she made sure to tell all her neighbors to retrieve their important documents.
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"We were all gathering in the streets, all of our neighbors, and we were watching as it was getting closer," she tells PEOPLE. "My husband wanted to leave instantly, and I tend to think I can be a warrior and there were some people saying we're going to stay and fight with the hose."
"My husband finally grabbed me and shook me and he said, 'Kelley, we are leaving right now,'" Chapman says.
After looking back at what happened, she tells PEOPLE that she felt getting out in time was an act of divine intervention.
"Because the fact that our alarms were going off but no one was breaking in, all the doors were secure. There was no forceful entry," she tells PEOPLE. "I think what was happening is the building was just shaking so much that things probably fell over. But still, if I didn't know that... I mean, some people wouldn't have as much time to prepare and we really didn't have that much time."
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