‘Everything was burning’: More escapes, nightmare stories come out of Maui

It wasn’t the vacation she had planned for her family, but Marla Strobel’s heart bleeds more for the residents of Lahaina in Hawai’i this week.

Strobel arrived at Vancouver International Airport on Friday with her partner and young daughter, having fled the fire-razed resort town in their rental vehicle before boarding a plane.

“It was devastating,” she told Global News, her daughter standing next to her.

“We made our way to Safeway because the power went out … we had no idea it would be out that long, and within an hour-and-a-half, the winds shifted and everything was burning.”

5:23 Maui wildfires: B.C. tourist on evacuation from island

At least 67 people died from the wildfires that have scorched Lahaina and other parts of Maui and Big Island since Tuesday. Officials say billions of dollars in damage has been done and the rebuild will take years.

While many remain stranded, waiting for flights off the island, thousands of visitors have now fled by air after sleeping in airports and cars. Before she boarded a plane, Strobel said her hotel ran out of food and was handing out instant oatmeal packages, but the lineup was more than two hours long.

Her family arrived in Lahaina two days before the disaster.

“You get to know the locals a bit and talk to them,” she told Global News. “We’re just devastated that people lost their families and people got hurt. Stuff can be replaced but people can’t.

“It felt quite helpless because if I didn’t have my little one, I would have wanted to volunteer, help or make a difference, but you just don’t know what to do or where to go.”

3:31 Maui wildfires: Lahaina devastated as Canadian recovery flights arrive in Vancouver

Port Moody’s Tracy Robinson felt similar confusion on the ground.

She landed in Maui in the early hours of the disaster, having only been told on the flight about “high winds.” The rental car company didn’t warn her either, she added, so she got in her vehicle and began driving to her destination of Ka’anapali in Lahaina.

“As soon as we got right up to Lahaina we got stopped. We were able to see the burning,” Robinson recalled. “We turned back around and tried to go the other way, which we got turned around again.”

That night, she said they panicked trying to find a hotel room but searching online, found only options ranging from $12,000 to $20,000. They spent the night instead at a community centre in Kihei, about 37 kilometres south.

“We went there thinking that there is going to be beds, which obviously it isn’t — it’s just an open, open hall to use the bathroom and sleep in your car. It was just a rough night,” she said.

“That morning, we just didn’t know how we would get out. You can’t dial out. You can’t call the airlines, so the best bet is just get yourself to the airport, which is chaos.”

Robinson and her family were able to get a flight in the end. She said their priority was to leave so that officials could focus on locals who are in need of immediate, urgent support.

“At least if we can fly out, we’ve got a home to go to,” she explained. “Being in B.C., we know the forest fire devastation. We know the toll it takes, how long it takes.”

3:02 Maui wildfires: Evacuees share stories of grief and loss as death toll climbs

Lahaina’s Lisa Puaa is one of them, now living in limbo with her daughter on the other side of Maui. Her home is still standing, but much of what’s around it has been reduced to rubble, she said.

“There were tiles flying off of our roof,” she told Global News. “It really is heartbreaking.”

Without cell service at the peak of the disaster, Puaa said the hardest part was not being able to let her loved ones know she’s alive. She was able to revisit Lahaina on Thursday, she added, and confirmed many people are still stranded there without communication.

“Since there’s no communication, no way to tell people where the services are,” she explained.

“It came so fast, there were areas people just couldn’t get out … we don’t have enough roads for everybody to get out.”

4:13 ‘Nothing but smoke’: Maui wildfires reduce Lahaina to ashes

As of Friday, a formal cause for the fires had not yet been determined, although the U.S. National Weather Service had issued several warnings for high winds and dry weather before they began.

Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz, a Hawai’i-born post-doctoral researcher in the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry, said conditions on the islands were ripe for wildfire. Unlike in B.C., none of Hawai’i’s native ecosystems are adapted to fire, she added.

“First of all, it started in a fuel type that’s grasses. Grasses tend to be what we would consider a flashy fuel, which means it tends to burn hot and fast anyway,” Copes-Gerbitz explained.

“Second, there’s been an extended drought — so moderate to extreme drought conditions — which means those grasses and other fuels are very dry and there’s not a lot of water around.”

Combine those high-powered winds from a hurricane more than 800 kilometres south of Hawai’i, and all it takes is “one little spark” Copes-Gerbitz added.

1:54 Maui wildfires: Death toll climbs to 55 as Lahaina fire mostly contained

Local authorities are warning tourists to stay away while the wildfires are burning. The federal government is giving the same advice to Canadians.

Condolences and well wishes are pouring in from all over the world as officials work to identify all those killed and contain the fires.

A fundraiser through the Hawaii Community Foundation, within hours, raked in more than $1 million in support for impacted residents, such as food, shelter and financial assistance.

— with files from Neetu Garcha