![]() ![]() When strong winds from Hurricane Dora drove the fire through Lahaina, large embers soared through the air - but they didn't cause a catastrophe at the Millikins' house. National Register of Historic Places nomination in Lahaina survived a wildfire because of its metal roof, a lack of vegetation along its dripline, "and a lot of divine intervention," its owner says. At the ground level, they removed all vegetation along the house's dripline and added a stone buffer - a step taken to thwart not fires, but termites. When the new metal roof was installed, he added, it included an air pocket to allow heat to dissipate. "We removed five layers of asphalt that were on the roof," Millikin said. After Millikin and his wife bought it in 2021, they finished a restoration project in 2022. The house has roots dating to 1925 - it's believed to have been moved from another location on Maui. "I think it's a combination of a commercial-grade corrugated metal roof, the stone around the house, the palms around the house that absorb the heat - and a lot of divine intervention," he said. Millikin points to two big factors: luck, and the metal roof he and his wife, Dora Atwater Millikin, installed during recent renovations. It's not easy to explain how or why the house survived a fire that obliterated hundreds of structures around it. Nearly 100-year-old house withstood a historic fire ![]() "As soon as we can, we want to open it to our neighborhood and open it to everybody who worked on it, as a base to help rebuild our part of Lahaina," he said. To him, the historic house's survival means it has a new role to play. ![]() Millikin's friends call it a beacon of hope. Photos of the wooden house, standing intact while its neighbors were reduced to ashes, quickly became an online fascination. Health Massive mental health toll in Maui wildfires: 'They've lost everything' ![]()
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