Rosa Coronel went to spend a few days on the island of Maui with her family, from San Francisco.
But he did not think that the holidays would have an unexpected twist.
Coronel and his family were in a hotel but went out to a store to look for supplies because there was no electricity there. It was when they realized the magnitude of the fire that had already been consuming parts of the island.
Authorities believe the death toll from the fires may be higher than 1,000. To see more from Telemundo, visit
“We tried to get out but the strongest fire started, the strongest air. People couldn’t go out (run) either up or down,” says Coronel.
The tourist remembers the people shouting and how the air brought the ashes that the fire caused in its path. The family was in their vehicle, trying to get away from the place, which had turned into chaos with the number of people wanting to leave.
“We tried to wait in the car for the cars to advance but they never advanced and more fire came,” says Coronel. “People became desperate, they went back and forth, but we were never able to get out of there.”
The family, made up of Coronel, her husband, her children and a niece, had no choice but to jump into the sea.
“We got under the rocks. We were hiding there,” Coronel said. “The smoke was very black. Everything was very dark, you couldn’t see anything”.
The family kept themselves safe by covering themselves with parts of the car’s carpet, which had been soaked by seawater. But, they couldn’t help but get some burns.
“The ashes were falling. We were all burned out,” Coronel said. “People started to cry. We were desperate because of the way the fire started.”
While they were at sea, Coronel remembers how everything started to explode.
“The tanks, the cars, (began to explode). There I despaired and there I couldn’t do anything”, says Coronel.
“We were in the water for about six hours, they rescued us when the cars, the houses, everything in Lahaina had already burned down,” says the tourist.
The firemen rescued them but, since his daughter had lost her shoes, Coronel gave her his.
“I burned my feet because I walked in the middle where the burn was (traces of the fire),” says Coronel.
Firefighters took the family to a shelter in the city of Maui, where they waited for conditions to improve before returning to their home in northern California.
