LAHAINA — Ask friends and family what they remember about Tony Simpson, and they’ll say he loved to share his homemade sourdough bread and always carried a medical kit in his car, just in case.

It’s why his family believes the EMT was being his usual caring self and died in the Lahaina fire while trying to save others on Aug. 8, which was Simpson’s day off, and the day after his 43rd birthday.

A friend and co-worker told Simpson’s family that he knew how to get away from danger, but if someone needed help, he would have stopped to do so.

“He was an EMT. He was always helping people,” Tony Simpson’s mother, Jacqui, said Sunday, the day after her son’s co-workers from American Medical Response, firefighters, police officers along with friends and family, gathered at Hanakao’o Beach Park in Lahaina to celebrate the life of the EMT who worked on Lanai but lived in Lahaina.

His family has heard and seen evidence that his car had gotten about a block away from his home.

Jacqui Simpson said she was told that Tony died in a house with others. She has not been given information on who those other people are.

On Saturday, there was a long procession of ambulances and fire trucks at the park with sirens wailing. Tony Simpson’s urn, folded uniforms and an encased United States flag were carried through a corridor of AMR personnel, firefighters and police officers before being placed on a table with the ocean and the island of Lanai in the background.

“Tony was the kind of person that people were drawn to,” said longtime friend Stephanie Jenison, who was at the ceremony and once worked with the late EMT at a Kihei coffee shop. “He was friendly and welcoming and always up for everything. He just cared about people.”

Mona Arcinas, operations manager for AMR in Maui County, can remember Tony Simpson’s affinity for the Valley Isle, as early in his EMT career he relocated to Oahu when there were no vacant positions on Maui.

“He would always call me all the time, ‘Mona, is there an opening on Maui?'”

Tony Simpson went to EMT class on Maui and graduated in 2013. He then relocated to Oahu before coming back home and getting hired in 2019. He became a full-time EMT the following year and has worked on Lanai ever since, Arcinas said.

She said following the fires,

co-workers kept on texting him. At first they knew the cell service was spotty and sometimes it would take a while for him to text back.

But as the days went on, the EMS workers, who deal with life and death situations, knew what had happened. He also didn’t show up for work.

On Saturday, the celebration brought more closure to the AMR family, Arcinas said.

“I think we were just happy to have done this for Tony,” she said. “I think everyone had their moments of closure already. This was the final way to just say ‘bye.’ ”

Tony Simpson’s family — his mother, Jacqui, his father, Tom, and his sister Nova, were paddled out in an outrigger canoe to spread his ashes and spread flowers while first responders and friends on shore tossed flower petals into the shore break.

He is also survived by his sister, Nichol Simpson, and brother, Tim Simpson.

“He was a wonderful guy,” said Tom Simpson at the ceremony. “He had so many friends. We had no idea so many people cared. The AMR family has gone so far beyond what we could have expected.”

Jacqui Simpson added: “They helped us with our grief. We miss him so very much. The Maui people have just been beautiful.”

She added Sunday that they have received lots of support from the community and some local authorities, but when the federal government stepped in, the flow of information to them stopped, including as they’ve tried to obtain the names of those who died with her son in the home.

She said the family also wants to see what is left of his home at 363 Keone St. Earlier when they were still searching for him just after the fires, they wanted to know if his motorcycle was at his home to see if he could have escaped that way. But there was no way of getting that information, she said.

Tom and Jacqui Simpson live in Belize and made the trek to Maui for the ceremony over the weekend.

Jacqui, Tom and Nova also got tattoos to match the one Tony had, depicting Hebrew letters that meant, “God is my number one teacher and guide.”

Born inWashington D.C., Tony Simpson also lived in many places, including Maryland, Boston and Detroit. He moved to Maui in 2006 from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

At the time, he was 26 years old and didn’t know anybody and didn’t have a job, but he wanted to live on an island, Jacqui Simpson said.

Before moving to Maui, Tony Simpson also took classes with the Red Cross, such as CPR and first aid.

When he got to Maui he worked for Bad Ass Coffee and also taught CPR and first aid on the side.

In 2012, he told his mom he wanted to be an EMT.

Jacqui Simpson questioned why, knowing the risks. She said looking at it, she felt “it’s kind of a scary job for a mom. You are always in danger.”

But her son said he felt that’s what he should do.

In 2013 he suffered a setback, as he was hit by a rogue wave at the beach and had to get 100 staples on the top of his head and other injuries, including a fracture of his C1 vertebrae.

He did get better and was able to apply and get into EMT courses. Though he walked with a cane, he got better as physical portions of the course took place, Jacqui Simpson said.

She said her son also was active in helping and befriending the homeless community on Maui.

She also remembered how much “he loved the water.” He was PADI certified and loved diving and was working on learning free diving.

The family wasn’t sure what to do with his ashes at first, but decided on scattering them at Hanakao’o in waters between Maui and Lanai, she said.

“The two islands he loved the most.”

* Staff Writer Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com and Matthew Thayer can be reached at

thayer@maui.net.