Maui resident recounts family’s harrowing brush with fate as wildfires reduced town to ash: ‘Fight or flight’

Lahaiana, Hawaii resident Jordan Saribay’s family fled the flames engulfing the island of Maui just moments before their town was reduced to ash.

Safe in O’ahu, he depicted the chaotic scene in an interview with Fox News’ Will Cain on Sunday, where he described residents’ attempts to flee smoke, traffic and, ultimately, the wind-fanned flames as they escaped.

“We’re in fight or flight mode trying to grab whatever’s in arm’s reach, making our way to our vehicles,” he said. “As we’re in the midst of doing this, I start to see one of the houses adjacent or near my grandmother’s house already to catch on fire.”

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A side-by-side comparison of the old town of Lahaina before and after the wildfire in Lahaina, Maui, HI. (Left: Michael Siluk/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images | Right: Alan Dickar via AP)

Saribay was with his grandmother in Lahaina as the flames came closer. As he headed to her house, he noticed the thick, dark smoke coming over the row of houses nearby 

He captured video of the smoke as fire burned a home close by.

“At one point in time, you just see the flames kind of raise up pretty high, and it’s like a wall of fire already kind of pushing down,” he described. “And the craziest thing about it is the wind. Like it was mentioned, it was pretty fast and 80 miles an hour. And it was just pushing it so fast and coming straight down towards the houses.”

Winds have made the disaster seemingly even more insurmountable as Hurricane Dora propels the flames and impedes efforts to fight them.

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Wildfire wreckage is shown Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii.  (Rick Bowmer)

Fortunately for Saribay’s family, most were lucky to evacuate earlier, but he stayed behind with his grandmother trying to pack some belongings before fleeing.

He planned to head toward his own home nearby next, telling Cain he hadn’t had a chance to get anything from his own place. At that point, the flames were even closer, engulfing the house directly in front of his own.

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Though his family successfully fled, not everyone was so fortunate. As the confirmed death toll from Maui’s wildfires climbs to a devastating 93, Cain asked about reports of traffic jams and people dying in their vehicles as they tried to escape.

“People were able to get out, but not everybody,” Saribay said. ” I was towards the beginning part of evacuating and, as I made my way through the neighborhood, I found that there was congestion, so I actually took a detour… and that was already congested and covered in smoke, so I had to go back up to the exit I just came from.”

In this photo provided by Tiffany Kidder Winn, burned-out cars sit after a wildfire raged through Lahaina, Hawaii, on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023.  (Tiffany Kidder Winn via AP)

“Basically, houses throughout the neighborhood that I passed were already on fire, so I’m already en route trying to get out…”

Saribay said he’s scared to see what the real death toll will be once the numbers come out, warning the numbers we see now aren’t indicative of the chaos to come.

“You can only imagine the kind of loss that existed just hearing everyone’s stories firsthand…” he said, adding later, “The number we see now isn’t the number that it’s going to be, and it’s going to be a lot higher because of the lack of accessibility to get out.”

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Taylor Penley is an associate editor with Fox News.