The Maui News
A Montana man jumped into the ocean Tuesday afternoon and saved his daughter, who was swept in by a wave, but did not make it out himself at the beautiful but dangerous Olivine Pools near Kahakuloa, Maui fire officials said.
The 15-year-old girl was standing near the water’s edge when a large wave washed her into the ocean, Fire Services Chief Ed Taomoto said. The girl’s 46-year-old father jumped in after her and was able to get her back to the rocky cliff.
Bystanders used towels as a makeshift rope and pulled the girl up the ledge to safety, he said. But when they looked back for the man, he was floating face down and unresponsive.
Emergency crews went to the remote northwest Maui area after receiving the 12:37 p.m. call, Taomoto said. While en route, responders were advised that a young woman had made it out of the water but a man remained in the ocean.
The Fire Department’s Air One helicopter and lifeguards on rescue watercraft arrived at Olivine Pools at about 1 p.m. and recovered the man about 40 feet from the rocky shoreline, Taomoto said.
He was airlifted by Air One to a spot on Kahekili Highway where firefighters began CPR, he said. Paramedics arrived a short time later and continued advanced lifesaving measures, but the man could not be revived.
He was pronounced dead at the scene, Taomoto said. The girl suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was released to family members at the scene.
The death of the visitor from Whitefish, Mont., was the 16th water-related fatality this year, he said.
Olivine Pools appears in many visitor guidebooks, but it has been a deadly spot. It is an unprotected flat lava shelf with enticing pools susceptible to rogue waves.
In June, two opihi pickers were pulled from the ocean near the pools. A 34-year-old Utah man was swept into the ocean there in January 2017 and his body was never recovered.
In November 2006, two visitors were swept into the ocean at Olivine Pools and drowned, and in April 2004, a 41-year-old California man and his 14-year-old daughter were swept into the sea there.
The girl survived, but her father drowned.
Firefighters from Napili, a Kahului rescue crew and a Lahaina rescue boat responded to the incident. Lifeguards from D.T. Fleming Beach Park also responded, Taomoto said.
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