“It’s really hard to think that this is real life and that this actually happened”
Destroyed homes and cars are shown, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. Hawaii officials urge tourists to avoid traveling to Maui as many hotels prepare to house evacuees and first responders on the island where a wildfire demolished a historic town and killed dozens. Kyle Ellison and his family had mere seconds to escape as flames from a wildfire raced toward their home in the town of Kula.“It’s really hard to think that this is real life and that this actually happened,” said Ellison.
Ellison lives on Maui in the town of Kula with his family. He had just come back from a trip to Western Washington and hadn’t even unpacked when he and his family had to evacuate. “I came back the neighbors and I are fighting it with garden hoses I’m getting water out of the sink I’m getting my pot that I cook spaghetti with, trying to throw that on the flames,” Ellison said, “And yeah just doing everything we could think of to try to contain it, but the wind was just too strong.”
Days after the fire and there are still helicopters in the air doing water drops, firefighters on the ground working toward containment, and community members coming together in any way they can to help.They have no water, little food, and spotty cell phone service while hot spots keep flaring up around his home. He said he was worried about his three young sons.
“They’re sitting here playing with their little trucks in the yard and you know I look over and there’s six feet flames feet from their head that just popped up on a little grass terrace so it’s still a very active situation,” Ellison said.“We have people sleeping in their cars we have hundreds of people sleeping in parks, we have 24 people cramming into 2 bedroom houses because they’re the only one of their family that still has a house standing,” Ellison said.
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