as (AP) Flames hit the West Maui area, Car after car of evacuated residents aimed for the only paved road on the outskirts of town in a desperate race for safety.
A barricade blocking access to Highway 30 then turned the cars back toward the rapidly spreading wildfire.
One family bypassed a barricade and was safe in a nearby town 48 minutes later, while another escaped by driving a 4×4 on a dirt road. A man climbed a dirt slope and climbed over a fire, Lahaina burned. He then scrambled through fire, smoke, and debris to pull the survivors to safety.
But dozens of others found themselves Caught up in a picture of hell, Their cars were stuck on a narrow road, surrounded by flames on three sides and rocky sea waves on four sides. Some died in their cars while others tried to flee for safety.
“From the bypass we saw people stranded on balconies, so we got out and checked,” said Kekoa Lansford, who has made several trips to the town looking for survivors. Lansford said what he found was a corpse and flames that looked like a scene from a scary movie. “And I could see people burning.
Road closures, some due to fires, others to power line cuts, historic lahaina the site of The deadliest wildfires in the United States in over a century. But there were many problems that day, and in some ways the disaster began long before the fire.
a flash drought The area produced a large amount of flash, and Hurricane Dora brought strong winds to Maui as it passed about 500 miles (800 kilometers) south of the Hawaiian Islands. These storms knocked down at least 30 power poles in West Maui, and Hawaiian Electric did not take steps to cut the grid, a common practice in other fire-prone states. Video captured by Lahaina residents shows fallen power lines setting dry grass on fire, which may reveal the beginning of a large fire.
and then like fire started swallowing houses Maui County emergency officials said in a frenzy Refused to use the extensive network of emergency sirens To warn Lahaina residents to evacuate.
Maui Police Chief John Peltier said at a news conference Tuesday that officers were driving up and down the street, knocking on doors and using loudspeakers to urge people to leave. , did not specify where and when such acts took place. The Associated Press has filed a public records request for location reports and other documents, including videos and internal communications, to shed light on police and fire response details, but Maui County has yet to release the information. do not have.
By interviewing dozens of survivors and public officials, examining official documents, and analyzing citizen videos, satellite imagery, and public data, the Associated Press’ team of reporters captured the first hours of deadly wildfires. Recorded. A look at the timeline reveals the chaos that has struck the town.
Shane Trew woke up in the early hours of August 8 and was in his backyard when he heard a power pole snap next to Lahaina Luna Avenue. He saw a downed power line set grass on fire and called 911 at 6:37 a.m. to report the fire.
Small wildfires are not uncommon in Lahaina, and the fire department said the blaze was 100% extinguished by 9:55 a.m. This guarantee reassured many residents. Some public schools were closed for the day due to strong winds, but others have not yet started. This means that many of Lahaina’s 3,000 public school students are home alone while their parents work.
However, the containment is not under control and the town is being hit by high winds. While many of Maui County’s fire departments are battling fires inland in the eastern half of the island, winds are blowing power poles and scattering embers like seeds in Lahaina.
Treu’s neighbor Robert Alconado said the fire reignited around 2 p.m. he records a video At 3:06 p.m., a large cloud of smoke rose near Lahaina Luna Avenue and was carried downtown by the wind.
At about 3:20 p.m., Lahaina resident Kevin Eliasson was watching the black smoke from a vantage point near downtown when a utility pole slammed into the tarred roof of a gas station two blocks away, sending a fireball flying. I was informed by a passerby. in the wind, he said.
Eliasson said there was a power outage in the area shortly after the fire.
Ten minutes later, Hawaiian Electric sent out a news release asking Maui residents to prepare for a prolonged power outage. Power companies say more than 30 power poles have fallen in West Maui, including along the Honoapilani Highway at the southern tip of Lahaina. At the same time, the fire department closed the Lahaina Bypass Road due to the fire.
The closure cuts off the only route south from Lahaina. Two weeks later, Maui Police Chief John Peltier said at a press conference that officers never stopped people from leaving Lahaina that day, but tried to stop them from driving over live power lines. said he did.
Back at the subdivision near Lahaina Luna Road, Nate Baird and Courtney Stapleton showed the first signs of trouble at 3:40 p.m. It was when I said it smelled like
By the time the family, along with their dog and Baird’s mother, got in the car and joined a caravan of fleeing residents, part of the subdivision had started to burn. A utility pole fell behind the car, causing an accident and blocking a side road.
Meanwhile, officers were tearing down fences to help others escape, the police chief later said. Pelletier said firefighters in the area lost their trucks to the flames and were nearly trapped.
As Baird and his family turn south to drive out of town, they are blocked by workers working with cones and downed utility poles. The workers were all signaling to turn back to Lahaina.
Deciding they didn’t care what the crew wanted, they took a detour around the cone and headed south. They arrive in the next town by 4:18pm and start texting people to see who else has arrived.
“Nobody really knew how much time we had left,” Baird said. “Even we didn’t understand it as we came from the center of the fire. It’s literally been minutes and it’s like one wrong turn. We’re all You’ll be dead by now.”
According to Jonel Santos, her daughter, Ronel Santos-Adrian, veered the 4×4 away from traffic and onto dirt roads, eventually driving to affordable Lahaina with her 3-year-old daughter and partner. He said he was able to escape from the price housing apartment. She is on her way to her friend’s house in Napili. Santos said some of the other residents who lived in the apartment complex didn’t have cars, and she believes her daughter couldn’t escape some of them. .
Kim Cuevas Reyes narrowly escaped with her children, ages 12 and 15, ignoring directions to turn right on Front Street and head for Lahaina’s Civic Center. Earlier in the day it had become a haven for refugees. Instead, she turned left and traveled in the wrong lane to pass a bunch of cars going the opposite direction of her.
Cuevas Reyes, 38, said: “When the firestorm came, traffic jams would have left us there. We should also tell our children to jump into the sea and be burned alive.” We had to, otherwise we would just be dead.” This is due to smoke inhalation and roasting in the car. “
At 5:20 p.m., Maui County shared a new update on Facebook. The county said roads heading south from Lahaina have been cleared and are open for traffic.
However, according to survivors’ accounts, some had already died on Front Street by that time. Others are jumping over seawalls, treading water, dodging burning debris, and spewing hot, black smoke.
At some point, police began directing people away from Front Street, Pelletier said. “Because it was already too late.” He doesn’t say exactly when that point will be reached.
A private ambulance company called the U.S. Coast Guard at about 5:45 p.m. asking for help transporting 10 injured people from Lahaina to Maalaea as the fire blocked the road to Lahaina. This is the first fire report to the Japan Coast Guard.
People in the water and at boat moorings use flashlights and phones to guide boats through thick smoke. The Coast Guard has rescued nearly 40 people from the shore and pulled 17 from the sea, while civilians are helping to pull more people out of the water. The rescue operation continued until early morning.
Kekoa Lansford is one of the rescuers. Earlier, he climbed the hill behind the town to watch it burn, trying to figure out when it would be safe to return. Mr Lunsford said he knew people would need help “because the road is narrow, quite narrow”.
Over the next few hours, Mr. Lunsford cycled back and forth to the still-burning downtown, often using back roads to get to safety.
“I saw one girl with her leg completely burned, so I helped her,” Ms Lansford said. “And then something clicked in my head that everyone was going to burn out. So I just kept going back down.”
Mr. Lansford goes all out on Front Street to get as many people out of the fire as possible.
“I dragged them behind the seawall and walked them back to my truck,” he said.
He takes each person to an area deemed safe from fire, where the others pick them up. And he goes back looking for more.
“Take them off the fire and be careful not to die from the smoke. Some of them will die anyway,” he said.
Houses and buildings are too hot to enter, and popular sunset viewing spots have become death zones, he said.
When the sun rises on Wednesday, the town About 13,000 people once lived here A wasteland of frozen ash in the final moments of panic.
Over 100 dead has been confirmed, About 1,000 people remain missing.
Many of the survivors are outraged and obsessed with the idea that so many lives could have been saved with just a few minutes of notice.
Baird’s neighborhood, near Lahaina Luna Street, was filled with children who were home alone when the fire broke out.
“I could have saved a lot of children if I had another 10 minutes,” he said, holding back tears. “It would have been nice to have had another 10 or 15 minutes of warning.”
The family recently ventured out to a mall in Kahului in search of a moment of peace in the aftermath of the tragedy. They met their son’s playmate.
“Kids don’t have filters. So their son ran up and said to our son, ‘This kid is dead.’ This child is dead. ’ And it’s like all his son’s friends come to the house every day,” he said. “And their parents were at work and they were home alone. And nobody was warned. Nobody, nobody, nobody knew.”
