“We had no other choice, because we were surrounded,” the woman said about her family’s fate.
American a woman says she fled Hawaii’s wildfires into the sea with her husband and three children on Tuesday. The woman told her family’s story on Thursday British Broadcasting Corporation for the BBC.
The family had to stay in the waves for almost four hours until a firefighter rescued them.
The whole family suffers from burns. The family’s children are 5, 13 and 20 years old.
Woman said that he and his family were in a rental car on the main street of the beach blocks of the city of Lahaina on the island of Maui when the flames began to reach the cars surrounding them.
When they saw many other people running towards the sea, they decided to do the same.
“We had no other choice because we were surrounded,” the woman said.
The family stayed close to the shore at first, but as the evening came, the tidal waves pushed the woman towards the rocky wall of the harbor. As a result, the woman seriously injured her leg.
When the cars lined up on the street started exploding, the family had to move deeper into the sea to avoid the shrapnel from the explosions.
One of the family’s children passed out in the sea.
After almost four hours of dyeing in the sea, they were rescued. There were fifteen people in the rescue team.
They sought shelter in the school building, but had to move twice when fires threatened shelters.
of the United States president Joe Biden declared the Hawaii wildfires a major disaster on Thursday. The fires have so far claimed the lives of at least 55 people.
The fires, which spread quickly as a result of strong winds, started on Tuesday.
The president released federal funds for Maui, and the U.S. Emergency Management Agency, the National Guard and the Coast Guard, among others, have offered to help with rescue efforts.
The fire, which caused unprecedented destruction, spread to the historic city of Lahaina and burned it almost completely. Governor of Hawaii Josh Green estimates that 80 percent of the city has been destroyed.
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