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My name is Dave McKenna. On the morning of October 2, I was a witness to one of the greatest disasters to ever hit the Island of Guanaja, Honduras. Around 3:30am, an explosive fire began engulfing the Cay, otherwise known as Bonacca. This little island is home to over half of Guanaja's population and housed over 5,000 people.
Residents fled their homes in the early morning hours directly into the ocean. Many we forced to leave all of their belongings in the path of the fire.
I woke up before sunrise to see text alerts from employees and messages from friends asking if we were safe. I went outside to see a massive cloud of black smoke covering the island. A friend and I immediately took the boat over to the airport to see if we could help.
Honduran Navy helicopters shuttled buckets of water to the island in an attempt to slow the fire as fishing boats conducted evacuations and used water cannons to extinguish the flames. Military airplanes carried the more seriously injured residents to Roatan for medical treatment.
Within hours the fire turned over 200 homes to ashes and damaged hundreds more.
Some were spared, but many families lost everything. To make matters worse, many people suffered fire related injuries or lost valuable medications and healthcare equipment. As we know, these things are not easy to come by or replace on a tiny Caribbean island such as Guanaja.
If you have spent time on a small Caribbean island like Guanaja, you know how closely connected this community is. Residents are doing their best to care for their fellow islanders during their times of dire need. As the owner of Guide Flies, the community and the business are closely connected. I have promised to raise awareness for this unfortunate crisis and help our friends. Basic medical supplies, nutritional supplements, dental and personal care items will go a long way to improve the well being of our friends on the island as they rebuild a stronger, better island.
I have started the Guanaja Fire Relief Fund to work directly with our longtime friend, Oliver Fisher. He is powerful community leader and humanitarian on the Island of Roatan, Honduras. Since the morning of the fire, he has been spearheading efforts to get donations and goods directly to the islanders in need.
We will use our donations to purchase replacement medical equipment, medical supplies, personal care items, children's supplies and nutritional supplements as well as other healthcare necessities.
There is also an active Amazon.com Wish List where items can be purchased and shipped directly to our collection where Oliver will receive and distribute those donations to Guanaja.