INDIANAPOLIS — From her Southport office, Victoria Fricke is on a mission.
“It was action mode of we have to get them on a flight. We have to get them out,” Fricke said.
Fricke, who is the owner of Vic’s Vacations, is a travel agent. She has been working around the clock to help clients stuck in or heading to Maui.
Hawaii officials reported Friday that 67 people died when a massive wildfire tore through a significant portion of the Hawaiian resort town of Lahaina.
A phone call from a client sent her into action.
“She said, ‘Hey, there are fires.’ I was like what? Then I realized the fires are really close to where my clients are,” Fricke said.
Her client, Tyri Boshe, was celebrating her 20th wedding anniversary. She, her husband and their teenage daughter were on a flight to Maui when the wildfires started to spread.
“You could see the plumes of smoke. The skies were just black. You knew there was something going on, and it just got darker and darker as the day went on,” Boshe said.
Boshe’s resort lost power and cell service. By Wednesday, the kitchen was rationing food to guests.
“We were given a fistful of eggs, two pieces of sausage and three pieces of fruit. You could have coffee of juice. That was it,” Boshe said.
Soon, the resort alerted guests food service would stop altogether.
“They were serving a meal from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., and that would be the last. There would be no more food or beverages,” Boshe said.
From Southport, Fricke worked to rebook and reaccommodate Boshe and her family.
“She immediately said, ‘Let me start getting ahold of other resorts. Let’s make sure they have power, and we’ll get you over there,” Boshe said.
Fricke was able to get the family out of Maui and into Honolulu.
With roads closed, getting to the airport was an adventure in itself. Once they arrived at the airport, they say it was chaos.
“It was crazy. Even checking in and going through TSA. Our TSA worker was in tears,” Boshe said.
Now, Fricke is reaching out to her other clients with both a practical message and a humanitarian one too.
“Discourage anybody from traveling right now. I’ve been reaching out to all my clients to start getting backup plans. I think Hawaii needs to focus on what they need to focus on, which is not taking care of tourists,” Fricke said.
