Maui wildfire survivors describe terrifying near-death experiences fleeing flame-ravaged island — including family with five children nearly wiped out at sea — as list of missing people grows to 1,500

Wildfire survivors in Maui have described their near-death experiences after fleeing the flame-ravaged island as the list of missing people grows to nearly 1,500.

A California father fought back tears as he recounted moments when his five children were nearly wiped out at sea, while another tourist described the brave “firestorm” scenes to help others escape.

This is because nearly 3,500 names were added to an open spreadsheet to help concerned family members track down their loved ones who are still missing.

About 2,000 people on the ‘lost list’ have since made contact with their relatives and are now categorized as ‘found’ – but more than 1,500 are still missing.

said Vixay Phonxaylinkham, the father of five from California his family was forced to abandon their car and flee on foot before jumping into the sea to escape the blaze in Lahaina, west Maui.

He wept as he described how they fought for their lives for three hours amid strong currents whipped up by winds of 100 km/h, until they were rescued at dusk.

“We had to think quickly, we had to get out,” said Fresno’s Phonxaylinkham The protector.

“We left our vehicle, and myself and my wife and our five children all went into the ocean. We found a floating sign that we hung from.

“We were floating out there – this is so unreal – everything is burning around us, explosions, cars exploding, embers burning, we couldn’t breathe.

‘After three hours we clung to the sea wall as best we could until we found a small cove where we were for about an hour with two of the locals who were with us.

‘There was still fire all around us, embers were flying everywhere. I tried to cover them and myself as best I could.

“Around 9:30 p.m. the fire brigade came to rescue us and we walked through the city. Everything is burned, everything is destroyed. We were exhausted.’

Eyes full of tears, he added, “The ocean has almost wiped my kids out a few times.

“But we stuck together, we persevered, and we’re here—we’re alive.”

Another California tourist, Dustin Johnson, said he spent hours braving “firestorm” scenes to help others escape before taking a flight from Kahului on Maui’s north shore.

He was shown hugging his relieved mother Karol Delong and sister Courtney Johnson on Thursday morning right after he landed at Sacramento Airport.

Johnson described the apocalyptic environment he left behind.

“So 3 a.m., the wind is coming up, the towers are going down, the streets look like spaghetti with all the power lines out,” he shared WISN.

‘The whole harbor was run over like bumper cars. There are multiple levels of a perfect storm for all hell to break out.”

Despite these horrors, Johnson said he decided to go back and help others before leaving himself. He used his sunglasses to keep the smoke out of his eyes.

“I had a choice: do I get on the boat or do I go back and help those people?” he said.

Johnson’s eyes filled with tears as he explained that he got back just in time for his mother’s birthday.

“It’s going to sound crazy, but I promised my mom I’d be home for her birthday, which is today.”

His relieved mother Delong added, “Words just can’t describe how we felt.”

Meanwhile, Maui local Jonathan Melikidse said he feared his wife and teenage children had died after their connection was lost during what he feared was a frantic last call.

When the wildfires broke out, Melikidse was working on the south side of the island when the wildfires broke out, but his wife Christy and their children Grace, 17, and Gavin, 16, were at their childhood home in the flame-ravaged town of Lahaina.

“The last call I had with my wife was her leaving our house on foot,” Melikidse told KTLA.

He said he could hear his kids on the phone and added, “They were very, very close and they were yelling her name.

“But the noises and the commotion were so frenzied and the smoke was so thick she couldn’t see them.

“The last call I got from her was that she’d lost track of the kids because the smoke was so thick.

“She was furious and scared and I couldn’t do anything and then her phone went off.”

Melikidse spent the night without any communication from his family, knowing that his neighborhood was on fire and people were dying.

He couldn’t reach them because roads to Lahaina were closed and even relief teams said they were cut off from Lahaina.

“I had heard stories about a Coast Guard boat picking up 12 people from the water and I probably called the Coast Guard at midnight and they weren’t on the list of people being picked up,” Melikidse said.

Sixteen hours later, he received a text from a friend who finally delivered the news he had hoped for.

‘It said, ‘I have your wife and children,’ Melikidse said in tears. “It was the best I’ve heard.”

Though his family survived, they were separated amidst the chaos and are now stranded on opposite sides of the island.

‘There is so much commotion now,’ said Melikidse. ‘The people on the other side don’t even know when food will be delivered or where they can get clean drinking water.

“There are still bodies in the streets, bodies are still washed up on the shore. I think this will be much, much worse.’

The fire started Tuesday and spread quickly and furiously. While its exact cause remains unclear, high winds, dry conditions and low humidity have aggravated the flames to death.

Fifty-five people have already been pronounced dead and three days after the fire that destroyed the entire city of Lahaina, 1,000 remain missing.