A few who managed to escape the Maui wildfires say they had just moments to make decisions that would determine whether they lived or died in a race against the flames — a harrowing, narrow window of time in one of the most horrifying and lethal natural disasters the country has seen in years.
These are the stories of the survivors:
Mike Cicchino said the power had been out all day, so he thought he’d drive to the hardware store for a generator. He turned off his street, and in an instant, his Lahaina neighbourhood seemed to spiral into a war zone.
“When I turned that corner, I see pandemonium,” he said. “I see people running and grabbing their babies and screaming and jumping in their cars.”
Cicchino rushed back home, told his wife about the situation outside and ran to their car with their five dogs. He called the police and a dispatcher said to follow the traffic.
Access to the main highway — the only road leading in and out of Lahaina — was cut off by barricades set up by authorities. The roadblocks forced Cicchino and the line of cars onto Front Street.
“We’re all driving into a death trap,” Mike Cicchino thought. He told his wife: “We need to jump out of this car, abandon the car, and we need to run for our lives.”
Cicchino stated that there was fire everywhere - behind, straight ahead, around. It had been less than 15 minutes since he left his house, and he thought it was the end. He called his mother and told her how much he loved her, then his brother, then the toughest of all, his 4-year-old daughter.
“I love you,” he told his daughter. “Be good. You know I’m always going to be there for you.”
They got the dogs out. But it was impossible to know which way to run.
The black smoke was so thick they could see only the white dogs, not the three dark ones, and they lost them.
Mike Cicchino and his wife took off their shirts, dunked them in water and tried to cover their faces. Cicchino ran up and down the seawall, shouting his lost dogs’ names. He saw dead bodies slumped next to the wall. “Help me,” people screamed. Elderly and disabled people couldn’t make it over the wall on their own. Some were badly burned, and Cicchino lifted as many as he could. He ran until he vomited from the smoke, his eyes nearly swollen shut.
Those who survived are haunted by what they endured.
Cicchino jolts awake at night from dreams of dead people, dead dogs. Two of his dogs remain missing. He agonizes over the decisions he made: Could he have saved more people? Could he have saved the dogs?
A few blocks away, Kehau Kaauwai said the wind was so intense it tore the roof from her neighbour’s home. It felt like tornado after tornado was slicing down her street.
Within moments, she said, the smoke that had been blocks away suddenly engulfed them. It darkened from grey to black, day seemed to turn to night.
She ran inside, grabbed her dog and some clothes, never imagining she would not see her house or anything in it ever again. She got into her car. Traffic crawled, and people were dragging uprooted trees out of the road with their bare hands. Debris whipped in the wind and banged on the car. Danger seemed to come from every direction.
Another resident, Bill Wyland grabbed his computer, passport and Social Security card and stuffed them into a backpack. He got on his Harley Davidson and drove on the sidewalk.
Wyland, who owns an art gallery on the street, said he could feel the heat burning in his back and could pretty much feel the hair burning off the back of his neck.
At one point, he passed a man on a bicycle madly pedalling for his life. Some were abandoning cars and fleeing on foot. The smoke was so thick, so toxic, some said they vomited.
Wyland said it was like a scene from a 'Twilight Zone' horror movie or something.
Anne Landon was chatting with others in her senior apartment complex when she felt a sudden blast of hot air that must have been more than 100 degrees. She ran to her unit and grabbed her purse and her 15-pound dog, La Vida.
“It’s time to get out! Let’s get out!” she shouted to neighbours as she rushed to her car.
She didn’t know where to go. She stopped and asked an officer, who didn’t know what to tell her, except to wish her luck.
Landon said that the sky was black, the wind was blowing, and the embers were going over them.
Anne Landon imagines her neighbours who didn’t make it out and wonders if she might have been able to help them. She was covered in ash but couldn’t bring herself to shower. Her dog wouldn’t eat for two days.
“I was terrified, absolutely horrified — so, so scared,” Landon said.
(With inputs from AP)