Medina County couple spurred on by ohana spirit to help Maui 'family': Leon Bibb reports

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Leon Bibb has more on a Medina County couple full of the "ohana" tradition amid wildfires in Maui:

When flames of a fast-running wildfire swept death and destruction through much of Lahaina, a town on the Hawaiian island of Maui, it left not only a physical scar, but also an emotional one.

Thousands of miles away in their Northeast Ohio home, a couple felt the pain. Among the victims would be people they knew.

Bill and Linda Steingass live half the year in York Township in Medina County and half in their home on Maui.
They were not on Maui when the fires hit, but they watched in awe.

"I just couldn't imagine that fires could get away from everybody and be that destructive," Bill shared with us.

Much of Lahaina lay decimated. It will take years to recover.

The Steingass home is intact. It is now a lifeboat for friends who lost everything. Like a woman captured in a photograph, shown to us by Linda and Bill. The woman's husband took the picture. She is shown walking through the charred rubble of what had been their home.

"They defeated death three times in escaping. They ran away from the fire three times to get out of there," Linda said.

"Some of the people we knew are living in our home now because they had no place to go," Bill shared.

From their Medina County home, the Steingasses view Maui also as "home." They plan to return in the fall.
Bill, a retired mechanical contractor, knows he can help, but "the need goes way beyond what one person can do to help."

"Maybe we can help through the church that we go to," Linda wondered.