Diana West August 14, 2023 READ

Speaking to News Nation, Josh Martin, a chef and business owner on Maui, explains in harrowing detail what it was like to survive the Lahaina fire after he and his wife and five dogs they were looking after were blocked from evacuating by car by police roadblocks (said to be due to downed power lines) and had to enter the water. 

The conditions he describes in the surf off of Lahaina are so extreme they call out for expert analysis I cannot provide. Here, for the record, though, is his partly transcribed experience.

“The fire was going into the ocean. The best way to explain it is a continuous bomb going off. … There were boats on fire 50 yards out. So even in the ocean at points, we were still getting burned. The video you’re showing right now [of people in rough water] … doesn’t have the flames actually coming into the water.”