County: Maui firefighter sucked into storm drain remains in critical condition

KIHEI (HawaiiNewsNow) - A Maui firefighter who was sucked into a storm drain and swept out to sea remains in critical condition, Maui County said Monday.

Tre Evans-Dumaran, 24, is in the ICU at Maui Memorial Medical Center.

He was injured Friday during heavy rains.

Officials said after being sucked into the storm drain at Waiapo Street, he was carried by storm waters approximately 800 yards to where the drain emptied into the ocean.

Maui County said Evans-Dumaran is showing signs of improvement, but isn’t out of the woods yet.

”We are grateful and humbled by the support of our community and send our deepest appreciation to everyone,” Fire Chief Brad Ventura said, in a news release.

A GoFundMe has been established to help the family with expenses.

Kihei resident Ryan Lund didn’t see the incident, but captured a photo of firefighters and county Public Works employees working to clear out a ditch that was overflowing.

“They were in the gulch in the mud, about waist deep,” Lund said. “I’m really sorry for the kid that got swept out to sea ... it’s just sad that someone’s trying to help and then he pays almost the ultimate price for it.”

Nico Bonilla didn’t witness the incident either, but saw the firefighters working hard to stop the area from flooding.

“The current through here was heavy. It wasn’t like something sitting still, water sitting still. It was flowing. You could see it in turmoil. It was like a washing machine,” Bonilla said.

On Monday, there were three culverts in the ditch and two of the three culverts had gratings covering them.

County officials confirmed the grating was removed from the third culvert to allow for debris to get through to avoid blockage. They also confirmed the culvert without the grating is where Evans-Dumaran got sucked into.

We also learned a visitor helped to revive the young man.

An off-duty firefighter from Cleveland, Ohio was vacationing on Maui when he saw it all happened.

He jumped into action, performing CPR on Evans-Dumaran to save his life.

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