Per cent of the town was gone in what he said was probably the us states largest ever natural disaster. Some properties seem to have been left untouched by the flames whilst others just metres away have been completely destroyed. Locals, who have been there, left to just look at what they have lost, they say there were no warning sirens to alert them as the flames moved towards their homes. Authorities say it will take many years and billions of dollars to repair the damage caused by the wildfires, which firefighters are still battling to contain. Some of the people who managed to escape from the flames gathered in a safe parking lot to spend the night together. They have been describing what they witnessed. All i could take with me, my wife, my son, my car. Fire filled up the parking lot. Everything. As we were leaving, i had triple layers of clothes. Everything was red. We saw the smoke finally. By the time we saw the smoke finally. By the time we got in the house it was like the tim
saw the black smoke coming into our house. saw the black smoke coming into our house, we had to run out, grab our house, we had to run out, grab whatever we could, and run grab whatever we could, and run we grab whatever we could, and run. we got in the car and we could run. we got in the car and we could see run. we got in the car and we could see the flames from our neighbours house, burning already we have heard other survivors describe how theyjumped into the sea to escape the flames. to give you a sense of that i wanted to show you these pictures. they were filmed from a boat as it sailed away from lahaina looking back at the shore. you can see the huge amount of smoke and flames on the harbour. you can understand why some people decided to take the risk and jump into the sea and tread waterfor hours. the coastguard said