Doris Saxer hugs a friend after salvaging furniture and keepsakes from Olena’s Russian Massage Center in Hilo on Dec. 1, 2025. (Kelsey Walling/Big Island Now)
In the wee hours of Sunday morning, Rebekah Macquarrie awoke to a raging fire that had engulfed several wooden buildings in downtown Hilo, including 189 Kinoʻole Street where she owned the Avani Yoga and Boutique on the first floor and lived on the second.
Many others awoke to the same roar, smell and heat of the fire that was burning the buildings that were mixed use, with a combination of residences and commercial spaces.
“All of us were asleep,” Macquarrie said. “It is a miracle we got out.”
There were no fatalities in that fire. But that was not the case in the blaze that happened just a day earlier at the old Puʻuʻeo Poi Factory turned affordable housing on Kekūanaōʻa Street. Two women, one 72 and the other 56, were trapped by the flames and did not make it out, according to the Hawaiʻi County police.
While the victims have not been identified by officials, there is a GoFundMe campaign for Aunty Antoinette.
Aunty Antoinette. (Photo Courtesy: GoFundMe)
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“Our hearts are heavy as we share the heartbreaking news that our beloved Aunty Antoinette tragically passed away in the recent fire,” organizer Julia Gomes wrote. “She and her daughter lived in the home, and while her daughter survived, she has lost absolutely everything.”
Gomes said the tragedy has left the family devastated and “grieving the loss of a mother while also facing the overwhelming reality of starting over from nothing.”
Raquela Benevides started a GoFundMe for her mother who survived the fire and to help with expenses for her grandmother who died. Benevides did not provide their names.
“During this hard time and family tragedy we are asking for any donations that will help with funeral expenses for my grandmother , and helping my mother get a new place and back on her feet,” Benevides wrote. “This is a reminder that tomorrow is never promised and to tell your loved ones that you love them because we never know what may happen and in a blink of an eye everything can be taken from you.”
In both fires, people lost their homes and some lost all their belongings — 28 were displaced from the fire at the poi factory and seven from the downtown Hilo fire, officials said.
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Doris Saxer spent Monday salvaging everything she could from Olena’s Russian Massage Center, which has been operating out of the building for more than 20 years. While there were keepsakes and furniture spared, the building is destroyed, and the business owners will not be able to return.
The front desk of Olena’s Russian Massage Center is intact while surrounded by unsalvageable damage in Hilo on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. (Kelsey Walling/Big Island Now)
“I locked the door on Saturday at 7:15 p.m., and the next day it was gone,” Saxer said. “Our place of healing is gone. We’ve been here for 22 years healing others through our work, and it’s sad that the healing power we’ve instilled here is now gone.”
While devastated to leave their longtime home, the three massage therapists who work at Olena’s came together to problem-solve so they could find a way to serve their clients.
“There is healing energy in these walls, but we believe that Olena’s is more than the building: It is all of us,” Saxer said. “Myself, Olena, Denise and our late sister Kim. We have each other and we can bring that energy anywhere. You have to have something to hope for and laugh about in a time like this.”
Macquarrie said she lost everything she owns: “All of the merchandise in the store, a beautiful yoga studio that has serviced people for years, and every family photo. Everything is gone.”
Three workers walk through the burnt remnants of the Kinoʻole building that was destroyed by a fire in downtown Hilo. Dec. 1, 2025 (Kelsey Walling/Big Island Now)
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Clifford Wilcox started a GoFundMe for his friend Michael, who he said escaped the poi factory fire with his two dogs and is in need of a new place to live.
“It’s a very sad situation after the holiday and going into another holiday not knowing where you going to be living,” Wilcox wrote. “Anything will help just to get him back on his feet.”
Macquarrie said she is able to stay with a friend for now, but does not know where she will go and what she will do next.
The purple building that once occupied the corner of Kinoole and Haili Streets in Hilo was destroyed in a fire early Sunday morning. (Kelsey Walling/Big Island Now)
Jeff Hansel, a retiree who lives in an apartment building just a couple of blocks away from the site of the downtown Hilo fire on Kinoʻole and Haili streets, was near the scene for about an hour and a half during the fire.
“I witnessed huge, gushing fireballs and powerful bursts of fire shooting out the second floor of the purple building (189 Kinoʻole Street),” Hansel said. “It was hard to believe. There were electrical sparks many times that popped from the buildings, including the one next door.
“Burning boards fell one or two or three at a time. One big chunk of burning structure, from the second floor, had fallen onto Haili Street already.”
Sunday’s fire resulted in the evacuation of dozens of nearby buildings, and firefighters doused buildings with water in case the wind caused the fire to expand.
The building next door to the purple building, 140 Haili St., was also completely destroyed by the fire, but there were still salvageable items left behind.
“People were worried about the stark similarity between the old poi-factory fatal fire and then this one the same weekend,” Hansel said. “That’s a lot of keepsakes, apartments and stability lost for so many people in such a short time. Also, we thought about the fatal Wild Ginger fire, so there have been three fires, two of them fatal, in just a short time.”
The Salvation Army and HOPE Services are working with displaced residents to find temporary housing after both fires, according to the County of Hawaiʻi.
Big Island staff reporter Nathan Christophel contributed to this report.
