A brush fire that broke out around 10:34 a.m. claimed the Nahooikaikas' two-bedroom, 54-year-old home on a 5,000-square-foot parcel mauka of Olowalu General Store.

After evacuating the area, Nahooikaika family members were busy buying supplies in Lahaina town and going to the Salvation Army to get other items before heading to a Kahana condominium to stay for the night.

Nahooikaika said she and seven others were at the home at the time of the fire, and members of her family watered down their yard "to the last minute," hoping the blaze would spare their home.

The fire went "side to side and back and forth. Next thing you know it came down the road," she said. "We had to get out. We had to leave."

Everyone escaped injury.

"We're all OK. We all got out," Nahooikaika said.

Her 72-year-old mother-in-law, Matilda Nahooikaika, was outside the home when she first smelled smoke. She went to water her backyard and saw the fire approaching from miles away.

But "then the fire started getting big," Matilda Nahooikaika said. "That kind of panicked me."

Leona Nahooikaika said she was initially in Lahaina when she saw smoke in Olowalu.

She quickly went home and found her mother-in-law watering the yard, and other family members joined in.

Leona Nahooikaika said she didn't see the home burn, but her husband did.

"He said it just burned the whole thing," she said.

Despite the loss of her home, she maintained an upbeat spirit, joking that "lucky get Longs" drugs store for the family to buy supplies.

The family intended to go to the American Red Cross shelter at Lahaina Civic Center today, she said. Later, "we will rebuild."

Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.