This article was originally published in UCSB’s ‘The Current‘.
The smoke. The soot. The devastation. No one understands what it’s like to survive a wildfire … except another survivor of wildfire. So when Lahaina called for aid in the wake of the disastrous fires in West Maui earlier this month, a couple of Santa Barbara-based organizations were quick to answer.
Upon hearing last week of the need for electricity, lighting and communication to help the local population to recover, Santa Barbara-based nonprofit Unite to Light, co-founded by UC Santa Barbara professor John Bowers, partnered with Direct Relief to send 600 solar Chandler Chargers and 150 solar-powered Luke Lights to Lahaina within days.