Colfax native aides couple during Maui Fire

COLFAX-Native David Nails, a member of the Nazarene Church in Pukalani in Maui, Hawaii, rescued an elderly couple in their 80s from the burn zone during the Maui fires.

Nails said he grew up in Colfax and graduated from the local high school before moving to Maui two years ago.

Nails had initially went to Maui for an internship in 2020, staying for four months before coming back to search for what he wanted to do.

Calling Senior Pastor of Nazarene Church in Pukalani Mark Gudmunson, Nails said Gudmunson offered him a job, "The rest is history," he said.

Gudmunson said the church operates an official Red Cross-sanctioned fire relief center.

"I served originally as the director of youth ministries, but since the fire started, I'm the lead operations coordinator of our fires center," Nails said.

"During our response to the fires here on Maui, Dylan was able to respond to an urgent request from Todd Kinley, Pastor at Onecho Bible Church," Gudmunson said, adding that the rescue was of an elderly couple in their 80s from the burn zone having been sheltered in place for a couple of days with no power, limited water and food.

"It was actually pretty miraculous," Nails said, noting that he'd got a call from Kinley, his old football coach. "Somehow, through God, he got a message on Facebook from a friend of a friend whose parents were stuck, he said.

Nails said the zone was completely blocked off from going in or out, but they were able to contact a sister church that was bringing in emergency aid.

The elderly couple was stuck with no power because of the fire, Nails said. "All they had for food was a box of cereal, bread, and milk," he said, adding that they also had no service due to the towers burning down and no news.

"They just thought it was a big power outage or a hurricane was going," he said.

According to Nails they were able to work with the sister church and the Maui Police Department, and were able to get a police escort to the specific drop zones.

The area of the islands is usually busy with a lot of lights at night, Nails said, noting that when they were there, it was completely dark, with the only glow being the fire.

Not being able to use their phones, Nails and his team printed off maps to navigate the islands. "There's so many hotels that look exactly the same," he said, "God was guiding us."

After visiting the first hotel and not finding them, Nails and his team went to the front desk of another one to ask if the couple was there, but were told they had checked out. Nails soon found out that they had but couldn't leave.

They were directed to their door with a flashlight, and though the elderly couple was leary of them, Nails explained that he was in contact with their son-in-law.

"It was the biggest surprise to the elderly couple because they didn't know what was going on," Nails said, adding that it was their 60th anniversary.

The group was able to get out with all of the elderly couple's belongings and relocate them to the church.

"They had a super good outlook," Nails said of the elderly couple, noting that they'd said while they may have just lost a vacation, many had lost their homes.

Nails said that while the couple stayed with the church they got close, and it felt like family, "Ohana," he said, "It's cool how God puts people together."

Nails and his fiance, Emma Gudmunson, are getting married in Colfax on Friday, Sept. 15, followed by a two-day honeymoon before heading back to Maui to aid with the fire relief.

They plan to aid with building tiny homes for those who lost shelter and continue to help in any way they can.

"We're headed back to that to see what we can do for the long haul," he said.