we are here tonight after being given a first-hand look at the devastation in Lahaina we traveled by boat with two captains who answered the call that night for the first time here we see the images they captured of the Raging fires and the heat they felt as they approached by water tonight with more than 100 dead here and more than one thousand missing so many questions remain could the authorities have done more tonight the images we have not seen before the Raging Inferno in the distance these are the images captured by two captains as they
made their way into Lahaina from the water told by the Coast Guard people were desperate for help families trapped at the water's edge so many jumping in children among them waiting in the angry waters for hours the ocean churning from the winds all to escape the Flames racing down the hill some of those Flames traveling a mile a minute tonight for the first time we take that Journey back with those captains traveling along Maui's Western Edge just a haunting scene here all along Front Street where so many families and the people of Lahaina came down
the hill to try to escape the flames so many jumping in the water here just to survive as the two captains got closer to the harbor after Nightfall they could feel the heat the blinding smoke we've all seen the images of the of the people who jumped in the water just to survive this and who were huddled along Front Street here we were expecting the worst on the way in and so we had we had big spotlights up here flashlights searching it was there was so much smoke in the area flashlight beam would only go
about 100 feet or so as we look at it here you can see that people had no place to go other than the water or the one road out of town yeah I mean they were trapped sorry it's a good thing it is still too raw Captain Riley Coons and Captain Travis to water they were both there that night well it looked like a zombie apocalypse everything was on fire everybody was just covered in soot their faces were covered in in such from the fire yeah they're I mean everything everything everybody was kind of covered
in into so many people who were actually even in the water were holding like a t-shirt up to their face just to breathe through it but the best I could tell there was a girl that was nine and a boy that was like 11 or 12. [Music] um they're pretty scared showed up out of the dark and took them took them paddling out through the waves who I think was a young boy the older one was encouraging his sister to be strong and it was pretty touching when you look at these charred buildings and the
melted cars all along Front Street I mean it's as though these families just they got trapped when you think about the people still unaccounted for here this is just one of the heaviest thoughts to think about I know that there's I got three young kids and I just imagine what what was it I'm just so thankful you know I wasn't in here I heard stories that people would just see um families huddled together and it said it looks like it's Pompeii they're just calcified Frozen in time and when I heard that because the schools were
in that day it was so windy that a lot of these were for children at home foreign the images of that night the families parents and their children in their cars they won't forget tonight ABC news with an in-depth look at the Timeline how did this happen it was more than a week ago Monday evening August 7 10 47 PM a surveillance camera capturing this moment a flash video of what could have been an early trigger in these deadly fires a powerline arcing witness Jennifer pribble it's windy and then there's a Flash and I think
that's when it trees falling on a power line and the forest is on fire the data compiled by whisker Labs a private company monitoring the grid through a network of sensors here documenting dozens of major electrical incidents around Lahaina we've got that video of that kind of explosion and we've got 10 sensors in that community that show a very sharp drop in electrical voltage at precisely that same time at 6 54 Tuesday Morning eight hours later you can see Jennifer and a co-worker running with a garden hose and a fire extinguisher trying to put out
the flames it was just minutes earlier 6 37 a.m Shane true woken up by the howling winds Powerline just went down in that moment using a hose to try to protect his home from the fires that he says appears to have been caused by a down power line that started started from up the road there authorities then declaring that fire under control around 9 A.M that morning but then losing control of the Flames hours later when the winds caused a flare-up to spread those winds 60 to 80 miles per hour see how long this pole
is going to hang in a power line pole beginning to shake the winds intensifying debris flying that pole rocking the winds like rocket fuel for the fires tonight demand for accountability and serious questions about whether alerts were sent when they should have been and whether Sirens should have been sounded was there a widespread alert no there wasn't uh it was it seems sporadic I'm gonna have to say that the government could have done a little bit better none of the sirens were activated the head of Hawaii's Emergency Management agency defending the decision not to sound
those alarms saying he has no regrets do you regret not sounding the sirens I I do not the sirens as I had mentioned earlier is used primarily for tsunamis have you sounded the siren that night we were afraid that people would have gone into the fire late tonight that administrator for the Maui Emergency Management agency has now turned in his resignation setting health reasons and tonight Maui's mayor has now accepted saying quote given the gravity of the crisis we are facing my team and I will be placing someone in this key position as quickly as
possible and I look forward to making that announcement soon in this neighborhood disbelief people rushing to evacuate in their cars by 3 52 PM the reflection in the side view mirror a glimpse of what was coming directly at them Eric Zimmerman capturing these images as the dark smoke overtakes the sky four o'clock in the afternoon here smoke is crazy I got Ash all over my face the hopper family here on vacation praying in their car 46 p.m the fire and smoke overtaking Lahaina by 5 PM historic Front Street filled with businesses and restaurants was on
fire explosions at 502 Denny euchert holding his phone out his window gridlock on Front Street families were trapped smoke and fire all around them you can feel the heat off the traffic didn't eat not sure what would come next recording this message to his family if I don't make it through this I love everybody two blocks away Marjorie Sinclair driving away from her home trying to find a way out by 5 30 PM the fire on Front Street so ferocious families including Noah tomkinson's have made the impossible decision to abandon their cars and jump into
the ocean both sides to the left and the right are on fire so many clinging to the Shoreline covering their mouths and their eyes at one point it seemed like might drowned a little bit I inhaled a lot of water when Sean Doherty swam out of the water and got back onto land he was badly burned I couldn't even make it across the street because the paper was so hot and now I have second degree burns on the bottom of my feet Bosco Bay leaving his workplace on Front Street at 5 36 PM just one
block from noaa's Vantage Point Embers barreling toward him and in the direction of Denny euchert's car 5 59 PM just one block away Denny Euchre has now abandoned his car crossing the street and Sheltering on the rocks of the harbor dozens of people are sitting across the Rocks as the waves crash over them 9 39 PM homes buildings burn to the ground two hours later 11 30 PM a half an hour before those two captains arrive in the harbor to help this nighttime drone with the view from above tonight more than a week later increased
scrutiny on the utility company Hawaiian Electric that company is saying they are still investigating what triggered the fire adding that the cause has not been determined and Hawaii's attorney general now launching an investigation into the response at least three lawsuits have now been filed against that utility company alleging turning off the power could have saved lives preventing electrical fires Hawaiian Electric defending its actions saying power was needed to keep the water running but authorities say in some places that ultimately failed to Firefighters reporting that some fire hydrants had run dry in Lahaina the electricity Powers
the pumps that provide the water and so that was also a critical need during that time and it was around midnight that night those two captains Riley and Travis arrive in that Harbor only to find the Raging fires and the blinding smoke a week later they're aware they were not the only ones who raced in to help a lot of people here did a lot of heroic work huh the community has been amazing on the response side I mean there was other boats out here that night we're not the only one no that was one
of the most amazing things out of this is to watch how fast the community came together and Rose up and it was instant and it was everybody I think the whole country is thinking about the people of Lahaina and Maui and we've got to do something to honor all these families here I hope so those two captains so many Heroes here on Maui when we come back on this special edition of Nightline the heartbreaking humanitarian crisis here the families in desperate need hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel
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