Two months after the deadly fires in Hawaii, a Lahaina tint company is still navigating through hard times.

Heidi and Cord with their sons Teo and Taj.

Heidi Beltz, owner of Lahaina Tinting, along with her partner Cord Cuniberti, were looking out the window of her hilltop home in Lahaina on August 8 when she saw black smoke making its way toward her. More than 2,000 acres burned, claiming more than 2,200 homes and nearly 100 lives, per the latest reports.

“I called my mom who is an insurance agent in California, and she said, ‘black smoke means it’s burning structures.’ I said okay, Mom, I’m going to start getting ready to go,” Beltz explains. Two months later, Beltz and her partner still haven’t been back. While they were lucky that their house was spared, their business was not. Lahaina Tinting, which had been located at 1068 Limahana Place, was one of the structures that burned down.

Part of a close-knit community, Lahaina Tinting was a staple in the area when the fire forced it to cease operations indefinitely.

“Overall, we lost over $100,000 worth of items. Insurance helped with that and we are getting one year’s wages, but it’s not enough,” Beltz says.

While difficult to tell, the left side is a satellite image of Lahaina Tinting before the fire via Apple Maps. The right is a Google Maps satellite image post-fire, showing former buildings as rubble and what was green is now brown.

Their one main employee Alfie, on top of being out of work for now, lost everything in the fire and temporarily living in California.

The couple is now applying for a Small Business Administration loan and receiving assistance from the Red Cross. They have been staying at the Hyatt, their fourth hotel and will soon be moved to a fifth, as they wait to be able to return home.

Lahaina Tinting offers commercial, architectural and automotive window film and has been in business for more than 20 years with Cord and Heidi as the owners for the past three.

Window Film magazine will have updates on Lahaina Tinting’s journey in the January/February issue of the magazine.