'We held on': Hawaii fire survivor recounts night at sea with wife and five children

and we try to make a way back but we we could have got stuck we try to come back uh we end up in Front Street my family and I and and it was just black smoke coming above us and traffic was stuck we were there by the sea wall by bubble gum I believe and um we got really real when we saw the planes and I had to think fast we had to get out we left our vehicle and my my myself my wife and our five kids we all got in the ocean we found a floating board that we hung on to we think we're out there floating the news is so surreal and everything was burning around explosions cars blowing up like Amber supplying just we couldn't breathe when because it could be those little areas just the carbon monoxide and we held on as best as we could we would offered three hours and we we probably got to the sea wall as best as we could until we found the local area where we're about for an hour um with two of the locals are with us and my family I found some sheet metal to cover them because they were just still fire all around us and Embers will find out we covered cover them and cover myself as best as I could at about 9 30 p.m fire came and rescue us and and we walked into town the little corner they made and everything was just burned and everything was destroyed it's a few points my daughter my little girl is like Daddy UK daddy my other one's hard to go be okay they got us they're really soft tire exhausted and somewhere you know this is the ocean when we start my kids away a few times but no [Music] and then we were here we're alive yeah

Channel: Guardian News

Views: 354,487

Keywords: Lahaina, Lahaina fires, Lahaina wildfires, Maui, Maui fires, Maui wildfires, Pulehu fires, Pulehu wildfires, Upcountry, Upcountry fires, Upcountry wildfires, Vixay Phonxaylinkham, guardian news, guardian video, hawaii, hawaii fire survivors, hawaii fires, hawaii news, hawaii wildfires, makawao fires, makawao wildfires, us news

Id: TLIhqXsI3-g

Length: 2min 9sec (129 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2023