Hawaii turns into ‘hell’ with residents forced into the water over wildfire

The island of Maui was transformed into a hellscape after wildfires reduced entire neighborhoods to ashes, with survivors having to jump into the ocean to escape the flames burning their skin.

Two residents who were in the heart of the city of Lahaina during the fires which killed at least 36 people described the chaos as a literal ‘hell’ with screams and explosions around them as flames closed in until they had nowhere else to go but the ocean.

“I saw a couple people just running, I heard screams out of hell … explosions. It felt like we were in hell, it really was,” one of the men, who asked not to be named, told KHON2. “It was just indescribable.”

Another survivor added: “You couldn’t really see anything, sometimes it was just blacked out by the smoke, but you could still see the flames.”

With their backs against the fire, the men said the winds from the heat were blowing the flames closer and closer to the residents taking shelter, burning their skin.

After about 30 minutes, the men said the heat became too much to bear, with police advising them over the phone to jump into the ocean.

With no other option, the men did just that, but even the cold water wasn’t enough to completely sheild them from the sheer heat of the fires.

“I was like, after everything I’ve done, I don’t want to go out this way,” one of the men said about the hopeless situation they appeared to be in. “Hell or high water, we’re getting out.” 

As they hung onto a nearby jetty, the US Coast Guard eventually arrived to save the men and dozens of others.

The Coast Guard said it helped rescue and relocate more than 50 people who ran and jumped into the ocean to escape the fires.

What we know about the Maui Wildfires

At least 36 people have died in the wake of the Maui wildfires that started late Tuesday.

“We’ve still got dead bodies floating on the seawall,” one Lahaina resident told Hawaii News Now. “They’ve been sitting there since last night.”

The wildfires, fanned by strong winds have burned multiple buildings, forced evacuations, and caused power outages in several communities.

The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora was partly to blame for the strong winds that knocked out power as night came. About 13,000 residents in Maui are without power, according to reports.

People are rushing to the ocean to escape the smoke and flames fanned by Hurricane Dora.

Fire crews in Maui are battling multiple fires in the popular tourist destination of West Maui and an inland, mountainous region. Firefighters have struggled to reach some areas that were cut off by downed trees and power lines.

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But while many were lucky to escape with their lives, they’ve come to learn Thursday that their homes and neighborhoods have been burnt to the ground, destroying their idyllic lives in the resort city.

“I own nothing. I have the clothes on my back and my car and that is it,” Phena Davis, a Lahaina resident of 20 years, told KITV 4.

Davis said a family member who was a firefighter warned them Tuesday evening the wildfires could not be contained and for them to pack everything they could and run to a relative’s home in Kahana.

“There was so much smoke, we had to evacuate. By 10 p.m., my house was burnt to the ground along with all of Front Street,” Davis said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.

“There is no Lahaina left. There’s no Lahaina Harbor, no Mala Wharf. Every restaurant is burned,” she added. 

Dustin Kaleiopu, a fellow Lahaina resident, echoed the remarks, telling NBC’s Today Show his home, his family’s home, and his neighbor’s home have all been destroyed.

“In 36 hours our town has been burnt to ash. There’s nothing left,” he lamented.

Like the two men who jumped into the water, Kaleiopu said his family was taking shelter inside their homes until they began hearing explosions and could see the flames consuming their neighbor’s yard.

Kaleiopu noted because his father was at work, he had no way of communicating with his family and rushed back to the house to check on them.

When the family reconvened on the other side of the island, his father told him their homes were “completely burned to the ground.”

Given the destruction, Kaleipou said he expected the death toll to rise as emergency workers continue to scout the charred remains of the city.

“So many people have gone missing. I will say that that is an unspoken fact that the death toll is way higher than 36,” Kaleiopu told CNN.