Burned out cars after a wildfire raged through Lahaina, Hawaii. Photo / AP
WARNING: Graphic content
Vixay Phonxaylinkham was meant to be having a relaxing sun-soaked holiday with his family as he drove down Front Street in Lahaina, a historic beach resort on the paradise island of Maui in Hawaii.
But as lightning-quick wildfires swept into town, whipped up by the tail end of a hurricane, vehicles around him began exploding from the heat.
Trapped in a rental car with his wife and children, he and his loved ones faced the prospect of being burned alive or abandoning their vehicle.
As the flames, which have killed 67 people with scores still unaccounted for, rose higher and debris rained down, the family jumped out and joined scores of others in sprinting for the only potential place of safety: the Pacific Ocean.
He and his family were forced to hold onto pieces of wood to stay afloat as the tide came in.
@caroarreguin My house is gone. So many people have lost their homes #maui #lahainahawaii 8/8/23
♬ original sound - squeakycheeks
“We floated around four hours,” Phonxaylinkham, from Fresno, California, said from the airport while awaiting a flight off the island, the sky behind him still pitch black from the wildfire smoke.
“It was a vacation that turned into a nightmare. I heard explosions everywhere, I heard screaming, and some people didn’t make it. I feel so sad,” he said.
Mr Phonxaylinkham was caught off-guard, like so many, by the extreme pace of the fires fuelled by “red-flag” conditions.
A dry summer and unusually strong winds from a passing hurricane, Dora – which meteorologists had expected to remain a harmless “fish storm” 500 miles to the south – meant regular wildfires took Maui by surprise, racing through parched brush covering the island and then flattening homes and anything else that lay in its path.
Despite the speed of the fires, there are also now question marks over why Hawaii’s famous emergency warning system, with about 400 sirens positioned across the island chain, didn’t alert them as fires raced toward their homes. Many of Lahaina’s survivors said they didn’t hear any sirens until the smoke and flames were upon them.
Instead, the county used emergency alerts sent to mobile phones, televisions and radio stations but, with power down, these did not reach many in time.
Among those in the dark was tourist Tee Dang who was also in a rental car with her three children and husband on Lahaina’s Front Street when she saw the flames closing in.
Grabbing their food, water and phones, they ran for the waves and saw others making the same beeline.
“We [had] to get to the ocean,” she told the BBC. “There was nothing else because we were cornered in.”
With their children – aged five, 13 and 20 – they at first stayed close to shore. But, as evening approached, and the tide rose, the water started sweeping her into the rock wall of the harbour, severely cutting her leg.
When cars started exploding, they were forced to move into deeper water to seek shelter from the shooting debris. After four hours in the water, they were eventually rescued by a firefighter who directed them through the burning streets.
But their ordeal was not yet over.
@koa_wahine #duet with @ChefJoshuaMarten #mauifire #devastation #desperation #CRISIS
♬ original sound - ChefJoshuaMarten
Leading a group of about 15 survivors, Dang said the firefighter told them: “I don’t even know if we’re gonna make it at this point. Just do everything I say. If I say jump, jump. If I tell you to run, run.”
After reaching shelter at the Maui Prep School, the family was forced to move twice more, including once because one shelter came under threat from flames.
But they were the lucky ones.
Tiffany Kidder Winn recounted the gruesome sight when she arrived in Lahaina on Wednesday to survey the damage to her gift store, Whalers Locker on Front Street. Within minutes, she came across a line of burnt-out vehicles, some with charred bodies inside.
“It looked like they were trying to get out but were stuck in traffic,” she said.
In another shocking encounter reminiscent of Pompeii volcano victims, she later spotted a body leaning against a seawall. He had managed to climb over but clearly died before he could reach the ocean while escaping flames, she said, breaking down in tears.
“The fire came through so quickly that there was no notice,” she said. “I think a lot of people just had no time to get out.”
Indeed, the death toll is expected to rise.
Of the three fires that broke out on Maui, the hardest hit was Lahaina, home to 12,000 residents, a historic town and a popular destination for tourists with two million visitors per year. Thousands were evacuated from the western side of Maui, which has a year-round population of about 166,000, with some taking shelter on the island or on the neighbouring island of Oahu. Tourists camped in Kahului Airport, waiting for flights back home.
At a news conference on Thursday, Josh Green, Hawaii’s governor, said the fires were “the largest natural disaster in Hawaii’s state history”.
“We will continue to see loss of life,” said Mr Green.
President Joe Biden offered condolences and pledged federal disaster aid to ensure that “anyone who’s lost a loved one, or whose home has been damaged or destroyed, is going to get help immediately”.
I don't think any of us fully realized the absolute tragedy that unfolded in Lahaina, Maui. Some people were even forced to jump into the ocean to escape the flames. I can only imagine how terrifying that must have been. To donate, visit https://t.co/4vepc5u2xm pic.twitter.com/tTmxPMvXAI
— Nahel Belgherze (@WxNB_) August 11, 2023
“Our prayers are with the people of Hawaii. But not just our prayers. Every asset we have will be available to them,” he said.
From Greece to Canada, scenes of fiery devastation have become all too familiar elsewhere in the world this summer, with wildfires, often caused by record-setting heat, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.
“It’s very strange to hear about severe wildfires in Hawaii – a wet, tropical island – but strange events are becoming more common with climate change,” Jennifer Marlon, a research scientist and lecturer at the Yale School of the Environment, told CNN.
“Combining abundant fuels with heat, drought, and strong wind gusts is a perfect recipe for out-of-control fires,” said Dr Marlon.
“But this is what climate change is doing – it’s super-charging extreme weather. This is yet another example of what human-caused climate change increasingly looks like.”
Officials are still trying to get a handle on the fires’ progress but know they’re not fully contained, Adam Weintraub, Hawaii emergency management spokesman, said.
“We are still in life preservation mode. Search and rescue is still a primary concern,” he said. “Our search-and-rescue teams from Maui and supporting agencies are not able to do their job until the fire lines are secure.”
Among the incoming assistance were cadaver dogs from California and Washington that would aid search and rescue teams combing through the ruins, officials said.
“Understand this: Lahaina town is hallowed, sacred ground right now,” said John Pelletier, Maui police chief, referring to remains that have yet to be recovered. “We have to get them out.”
Once that is done, it will be a very long road to recovery with more than 1700 buildings and billions of dollars in property destroyed.
Richard Bissen, Maui mayor, said that Lahaina, a former whaling hub that holds deep cultural significance for Hawaiians as the former royal residence of King Kamehameha, who unified Hawaii under a single kingdom, has been totally wiped out.
“It’s all gone. None of it’s there. It’s all burnt to the ground,” he said.
Beyond buildings and human life, one symbolic casualty is Lahaina’s 150-year-old banyan tree – said to be the oldest in the United States – which shaded townsfolk and tourists alike from the Hawaiian sun, in a place once called “Lele”, the Hawaiian word for “relentless sun”.
While many of its aerial roots were charred, locals expressed hope it could survive, offering a glimmer of hope to the stricken island.
Kidder Winn said: “It’s burned, but I looked at the trunk and the roots and I think it’s going to make it.”
It is, she added, a “diamond in the rough of hope”.
The uneasy alliance of parties forming the government is on the verge of collapse.