BREAKING: At least 36 people have died in Hawaii's Lahaina fire, Maui County reports.
Lahaina residents Kamuela Kawaakoa and Iiulia Yasso described a harrowing escape from under smoke-filled skies Tuesday afternoon. The couple and their 6-year-old son grabbed a change of clothes and ran as the bushes around them caught fire.
“It was so hard to sit there and just watch my town burn to ashes and not be able to do anything,” Kawaakoa said. “I was helpless.” “It’s horrifying. I’ve flown here 52 years and I’ve never seen anything come close to that,” said Richard Olsten, a helicopter pilot for a tour company. “We had tears in our eyes.”
The Coast Guard said it rescued 14 people who jumped into the water to escape flames and smoke, including two children. Mauro Farinelli, of Lahaina, said the winds had started blowing hard on Tuesday, and then somehow a fire had started up on a hillside.The winds were so strong they blew his garage door off its hinges and trapped his car in the garage, Farinelli said. So a friend drove him, along with his wife Judit and dog Susi, to an evacuation shelter. He had no idea what had happened to their home.President Joe Biden said he’d ordered all available federal assets to help with the response.
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