When flames fanned by high winds tore through historic Lahaina, Jubee Bedoya sought refuge in the only place that didn’t seem overwhelmed by fire.
The lifelong Lahaina resident ran into the ocean.
“We were trapped,” Bedoya said. “There was nothing we could do. That the fire and the wind came so fast. There was nothing anyone could do.”
On his way to the water, Bedoya met a California family of five on Front Street, where traffic had ground to a standstill as people tried to escape the fire. Drivers in rows of three cars were trying to escape on the two-lane highway.
The father handed Bedoya his 2-year-old son and they went into the water.
“When you’re in that life-or-death situation, you don’t care who’s around you,” Bedoya said. “You just want to try to help someone.”
A woman and her family miraculously managed to escape a devastating fire on Maui. Hear her shocking testimony of this tragedy.
The boy clung to Bedoya’s neck for the next two to three hours, Bedoya said. He heard screams as they floated on a piece of plywood that had flown from a store front.
“That plywood saved our lives,” Bedoya said. “We hold on to that. We were about six or eight. We floated around.”
The family and Bedoya were among the 17 people rescued by the Coast Guard. She returned to Lahaina two days later to find his neighborhood destroyed.
The death toll in the deadliest wildfire in modern US history reached 93 over the weekend.
