Maui wildfire victims fear land grab may threaten Hawaiian culture

Deborah Loeffler sits in her hotel room where she was evacuated to after the Lahaina fire burned down her home, in Kaanapali, Hawaii, U.S., August 19, 2023. REUTERS/Liliana Salgado

KAANAPALI, Hawaii (Reuters) - Deborah Loeffler felt she could not lose much more after a wildfire destroyed the home in Maui, where five generations of her family have lived, and a son died the same day on the U.S. mainland.

Grieving and overwhelmed, Loeffler was soon beset by emails with unsolicited proposals she sell the Lahaina beachfront plot in Maui where her grandfather built their teal-green wooden home in the 1940s.