HONOLULU (KHON2) — Folks with local ties are also trying to do their part to get people out of evacuation zones.
Kaimuki High School class of 1986 graduate Michael Sullivan now lives in Azusa, California just a few miles away from the Eaton fire. He said the air quality being poor is an understatement.
“So if everyone back home could take a deep breath for me, I’d appreciate it,” Sullivan said. “It’s overwhelming how it smells, it’s literally like having a fireplace going.”
Sullivan drives for Uber and even had calls in the Altadena evacuation zone on Tuesday, Jan. 7.
“Actually picked up a young girl whose mother, grandmother is from Hawaii,” he said, “I got her and her cat Stinky out to her dad’s house, and the dad spotted my sticker on the car. So, it’s kind of nice to be able to have that, you know, a little bit of Hawaii connection there.”
2022 Punahou Graduate Aidan Tune now plays volleyball for Pepperdine University, his campus still had power as of Wednesday afternoon. The ash in the sky is not just a visual hazard since the Santa Ana winds are carrying the smoke for miles.
“You have to put your hoodie, like, on your face, because a bunch of debris will, like, get in your face. I wear contacts so it’s pretty like, dries you out,” Tune said.
Both Tune and Sullivan are hunkered down, Sullivan caught riveting moments of nurses evacuating elderly patients from a care home on his dashcam on Tuesday.
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“At least a dozen patients, just one right after the other, coming out through the intersection, going into a parking lot,” Sullivan said. “But I mean, honestly, there are so many more people out there doing way more than I did. I just played a very small role and am glad to have done it. And, you know, I’m not afraid to do it again.”