{"id":2021475,"date":"2023-09-04T14:25:02","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T18:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/defying-police-blockades-proved-life-saving-in-maui-fires\/"},"modified":"2023-09-04T14:29:52","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T18:29:52","slug":"defying-police-blockades-proved-life-saving-in-maui-fires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/defying-police-blockades-proved-life-saving-in-maui-fires\/","title":{"rendered":"Defying police saved lives in Maui fires."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdefying-police-blockades-proved-life-saving-in-maui-fires%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2021475&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Surviving \u200bthe Lahaina Wildfire: A Story of Courage and Chaos<\/h2>\n<p>Christy Albinson still has nightmares. The nightmares of \u200cchildren are the worst, she says, nearly a month after the tragic Lahaina wildfire\u2064 in West Maui.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been \u2063traumatized. My dreams \u200chave been pretty whacko. They&#8217;re\u200d horrible\u2014children buried in the sand. I&#8217;m spooked,&#8221; Ms. Albinson, 47, said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And when the panic attacks strike without warning, it&#8217;s all \u200bshe can do to remain calm.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, \u200bthe question crosses her mind: Why did she survive when\u200d so\u200c many others died?<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not so much survivor&#8217;s guilt \u200bas it\u200c is a simmering anger\u2014a feeling that the outcome could have\u200c been different for so many if emergency management \u200dofficials had responded\u200b differently.<\/p>\n<p>All Ms. Albinson knows is that people who stayed in their vehicles in traffic perished in\u2062 the\u2062 smoke and flames.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>Christy Albinson (L), with her daughter Shelby \u200dThomson,\u200c barely escaped \u200cwith\u2062 her life during the\u2064 tragic Lahaina \u2062wildfire on Aug. 8, 2023.\u200d (Courtesy Shelby Thomson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;They were\u2064 driving to their\u2064 deaths, basically. I acknowledged I was\u200b in \u2063control of my choices and needed to not listen to the police,&#8221; Ms. Albinson told The Epoch\u2062 Times.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I recognized \u200cI would\u200c have\u200b to \u200cgo around the barriers and\u200d do what it took because this \u2062was my life. I have grandchildren; \u2062I needed to \u200dget to my family.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Several other Lahaina\u2064 residents and workers told The Epoch Times that they survived only by driving \u2064around \u200bor\u200d through the police roadblocks, acknowledging the \u200dpolice were just &#8220;following orders.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Common sense,&#8221; said Grale, a West \u2063Maui resident who was working at a gated community in Lahaina on\u200d the day of \u200dthe fire.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Me? I&#8217;m in panic mode. I&#8217;m getting the heck \u2063out of here. Survival mode. Honestly, I couldn&#8217;t believe how many cars \u2062on Front Street \u200djust burned.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Lahaina fire burned 2,170 acres and more than 2,000 homes and \u2063buildings \u2064in \u2064this historic coastal community with a population\u200c of 13,120.<\/p>\n<p>The scenic oceanside Front Street serves as the town&#8217;s main street and\u2062 connector \u2063to the Lahaina highway bypass to\u200b and from the community.<\/p>\n<h3>Multiple Fires<\/h3>\n<p>Officials believe the first\u2062 fire \u2063began in the\u2063 brush around Lahaina after midnight on Aug. 8, causing sporadic power outages and two other\u200d large fires \u2062inland.<\/p>\n<p>By \u200d10 a.m., officials had announced the Lahaina \u2063fire was 100\u2064 percent contained despite limited capacity to pump water. \u200bThe \u200bfire soon \u200creignited in the uplands \u2062overlooking\u200c the town in the early afternoon, driven by 80 mph winds that forced hot embers into Lahaina&#8217;s more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/it-begins-israel-calls-up-thousands-of-troops-positions-heavy-machinery-for-ground-offensive\/\" title=\"IT BEGINS: Israel Calls Up Thousands Of Troops, Positions Heavy Machinery For Ground Offensive\">densely populated areas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In response, local police set \u2062up roadblocks\u200c along the northbound \u200dhighway that residents say created massive choke points for\u200c people trying \u2062to escape.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>Search and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/defying-police-blockades-proved-life-saving-in-maui-fires\/\" title=\"Defying police saved lives in Maui fires.\">recovery team members \u2064check burned \u2063buildings<\/a> and cars in \u2063the aftermath of the wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii, on Aug. 18, \u20622023. \u200c(Yuki Iwamura\/AFP\u200c via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Officials reported 100 people \u2063or more ran into the ocean as the air \u2062grew thick with black smoke and swirling\u200b ash. \u200bMany stayed in the\u2062 water for hours until help arrived.<\/p>\n<p>On\u2064 Aug. 24,\u2064 Maui County officials filed \u2064a lawsuit accusing\u200d the power company, Hawaiian\u200d Electric, of &#8220;gross\u2063 negligence&#8221; by failing to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/consumer-watchdog-launches-campaign-exposing-duke-energy-esg-priorities-over-reliable-power-grid\/\" title=\"Consumer Watchdog exposes Duke Energy's ESG priorities over reliable power grid in new campaign.\">de-energize power lines<\/a> that would have prevented the wildfire, and $5.5 billion\u2063 in physical \u200cdamage and\u200c catastrophic\u2062 loss\u2063 of life.<\/p>\n<p>The power company claimed in rebuttal that it cut the electricity to the\u200c lines for approximately six hours when the \u2064second deadly\u200c fire erupted in Lahaina.<\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;Eerie&#8217; Premonition<\/h2>\n<p>Ms.\u2064 Albinson said\u200d she awoke the morning of Aug. 8 \u200cwith a\u200b peculiar sense that something was wrong that day\u2014but what, exactly, she couldn&#8217;t \u2062say.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I just \u200chad an \u200deerie feeling that something \u200bwas off before \u2064I\u200b went to\u2062 work. I filled my car with gas\u2062 and got extra food. I just wasn&#8217;t sure.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ms.\u200c Albinson had been working\u2064 the \u2063same\u200b job for 10 \u2063years, cleaning condominiums and bed-and-breakfasts in\u2062 the old Lahaina surfing community \u2064of Puamana.<\/p>\n<p>She called her boss at 7:30 a.m., who told her the power was off and that driving to work would take longer than usual\u200b due to the smaller fire and traffic on \u200dFront\u200c Street, a main road through the town.<\/p>\n<p>Ninety minutes later, Ms. Albinson arrived at work, having negotiated a &#8220;crazy line of traffic.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>Burned\u200b cars sit in front\u200c of a home that was destroyed by\u2062 the Aug. 8 wildfire \u2062in Lahaina, Hawaii, on Aug. 16, \u20642023. (Justin Sullivan\/Getty \u2062Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>She\u200c remembered how the wind seemed to cascade down the\u200c mountainside from the north as Hurricane Dora \u200dpassed hundreds of miles off\u200c the\u2062 southern coastline.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was almost like a \u2063swirling wind.\u2063 It was\u2063 just \u200dcrazy\u2014like nothing I&#8217;d ever seen,&#8221; Ms. Albinson said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That wind was so nuts. You had to protect your head if you\u2063 got out of your car. Things\u2062 were flying in \u200bour\u2064 eyes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Around 3:30 p.m., the situation\u2062 worsened. Ms. Albinson \u2063and a \u2063coworker left work together and followed each other home in separate vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We hoped to\u2063 get to the highway and jaunt to the next bypass. Instead, we were blocked off by police and [traffic] \u200ccones.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Albinson recalled telling a friend on the\u200b phone\u200b as she sat in heavy traffic\u2064 on Front Street: &#8220;I think I&#8217;m in the apocalypse.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She wondered why police\u200c were blocking the exits and stopping cars, \u200bturning \u2063them back, yet allowing other vehicles into\u2063 the town as things were in \u200b&#8221;such chaos.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Albinson said\u2063 she then pulled\u200b off the road at the corner of Lahainaluna \u200cand Front Street and began waving at a police officer sitting in his cruiser to ask for instructions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He would not \u2064look at me. He would not turn his head. He just kept \u200dfacing\u2064 his computer\u200d and would not \u2062acknowledge me asking for \u2063assistance,&#8221; Ms. Albinson said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I couldn&#8217;t quite understand why the cops would\u200b block everybody in unless it were for\u200c our safety.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>All around, the\u200d debris flew past her car\u2063 in the gale-force winds. A large tree branch struck her windshield at one \u200dpoint, but luckily, the glass didn&#8217;t\u2064 break.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There was no question \u200bin my \u2064mind people\u2064 would \u2062be stuck [in traffic]. I\u2063 didn&#8217;t know what it meant at the time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Albinson said\u2062 she watched \u2064her friend \u2064turn left to head south as she veered right to find the\u200c exit blocked by police. Quickly, she made a &#8220;20-point turn&#8221;\u2064 and headed back to Puamana.<\/p>\n<p>Along the way, she saw her \u2062boss sitting in \u200bher car\u2062 near an old banyan tree.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m going home,&#8221; her boss said.<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Albinson said she began to plead with her employer not to go back \u200dto the\u200c house, sensing it wasn&#8217;t safe.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She\u2062 drove off anyway. I didn&#8217;t hear anything from her for 24 hours. She\u200c spent \u2064the night\u200d [seeking safety] \u2063 in the ocean.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With\u200b powerful \u2062winds buffeting her vehicle, Ms. Albinson knew she\u200c had to get out of Lahaina &#8220;at all \u200ccosts.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll break the [police] barrier if I have to,&#8221; said Ms. Albinson, who managed to find an unguarded \u200dexit to\u2062 Route 30\u200b away from Lahaina\u2014and home.<\/p>\n<p>That night she told her daughter, Shelby Thomson, 27, &#8220;There&#8217;s going to be thousands \u2063of dead people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mom, don&#8217;t say that,&#8221; her daughter \u200csaid.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>Search\u200b and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lahaina-residents-say-police-barricades-prevented-people-from-fleeing-raging-fires\/\" title=\"Lahaina locals claim barricades hindered escape from wildfires.\">recovery team members check burned buildings<\/a> and\u2062 cars in\u200b the aftermath of the wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii,\u200d on Aug. 18, 2023. (Yuki Iwamura\/AFP\u200b via\u200d Getty \u2064Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But Ms.\u200b Albinson said she \u2062knew there were too many\u200c people still\u200d trapped in the\u2064 town for \u2064it to be\u2062 otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>Maui County officials\u2064 announced at the \u200dend of August that 100 percent of \u200dthe town had been \u200bsearched for\u2062 human remains.\u200d They put the death\u200b toll\u200b at 115, with hundreds still missing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Call it\u2062 divine intervention. We&#8217;ve been unpacking it,&#8221;\u200c said\u2062 Ms. Thomson, realizing how close her mom \u200dhad come to &#8220;not getting out&#8221; alive.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Another half hour and she would&#8217;ve been \u200dblocked in.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;Lot of Confusion&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re just grateful to be alive,&#8221; said Michelle, whose husband, Ed, lost all\u200d his tools for his contracting business in the Lahaina fire.<\/p>\n<p>Although the couple&#8217;s home burned in the fire, they\u200c were able to save their \u2063dogs and 30 chickens.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>(Left) The Waiola Church\u200d is engulfed in flames in Lahaina, Hawaii, \u2062on Aug. 8, 2023. (Right) A volunteer\u200d makes damage assessment of burned buildings in the\u200d aftermath of the wildfire on\u2062 Aug. 12, 2023.\u200c (Matthew Thayer\/The Maui News via A, Yuki Iwamura\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Michelle attributes the deadly fire \u200bto bad decisions by local \u200dofficials\u2062 and &#8220;a \u2063lot of miscommunication. A lot of confusion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Her husband recalled how bad the situation was on \u2064Front \u200bStreet \u2062as panic-stricken motorists jammed \u200dthe\u2064 roadway.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All\u2064 of\u200d a sudden, flames and big embers were coming \u200bover the buildings right next to us,&#8221; Ed told The Epoch \u2062Times. &#8220;It was raining\u2014snowing\u200c embers. It \u2062was pretty thick. It was landing on the grass, starting tiny fires, and going out. That\u2063 freaked everybody out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ed said \u200che was astonished at how one lane \u200dof northbound traffic on Front Street quickly swelled into six lanes of mayhem,\u2063 all moving \u2062in \u200cthe same direction.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They were on the\u2064 sidewalks\u2014they were everywhere. You couldn&#8217;t even get out of your vehicle. They\u2062 were beside \u2063you, so\u200b close to you. You couldn&#8217;t even open your doors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/09\/03\/id5485590-Artboard-2-copy-5.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My wife kept saying [over the phone], &#8216;You&#8217;ve got to get out of there, even \u200cif you \u200dhave to run away from the vehicle. Just go.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ed\u200d then noticed two friends \u200cwere\u200d in vehicles behind him who would \u2062later\u200b jump into the ocean \u2062to save \u200ctheir lives.<\/p>\n<p>Ed&#8217;s chance to\u2064 escape \u200bcame when a vehicle opened a space to his right\u200c on Front Street.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2062 just hit the gas and filled his \u200bspot,&#8221; Ed said, throwing caution aside as he drove\u2063 onto the sidewalk and grass in front of homes, edging his way\u200d further \u2063to the right to get\u200b out of traffic.<\/p>\n<p>Ed \u2064said he just kept moving forward \u2062until he \u200cfinally reached a blocked side \u200bstreet and drove around the police barricade.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You \u2063can&#8217;t go that way!&#8221; an officer shouted, but Ed simply responded, &#8220;Well, I&#8217;m going anyway.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said getting onto the highway was &#8220;completely doable,&#8221; and feels, in retrospect,\u200d that \u2064defying the authorities probably saved his life.<\/p>\n<p>Maui\u2062 County Police Chief John Pelletier and Mayor Richard Bissen have yet to return a phone call and email from The Epoch Times seeking comment for this article.<\/p>\n<p>The Epoch Times could not immediately\u200c reach interim Maui County Emergency Management (MEMA) Administrator Darryl Oliveira\u200b for comment.<\/p>\n<p>On Aug. 28, Mr. Oliveira replaced former MEMA administrator Herman Andaya, \u200cwho\u2063 resigned earlier this month, citing &#8220;health reasons.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Andaya \u200dbecame\u200d embroiled \u2064in\u200c controversy over his decision not to sound Maui \u200dCounty&#8217;s all-hazard warning sirens that would have alerted residents to the\u200c wildfires.<\/p>\n<p>While MEMA routinely tests the sirens on the first day \u200cof each month, the agency \u2062said it canceled the scheduled Sept.\u200c 1 system check out of sympathy \u200cand respect for the\u200d fire victims.<\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;Survival Mode&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>Grale, a Lahaina resident,\u2062 said she was getting ready to go to work in\u200b Lahaina when her\u2062 grandson called\u2062 her at 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 8,\u200c asking if she was\u200c OK due to the first\u200b fire.<\/p>\n<p>Everything is fine, she told him. &#8220;But when I went down to Lahaina, as \u200csoon as I \u200dgot to the pull-off to \u200cPuamana, it was\u2062 all \u200bblocked \u200coff.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Grale found another route\u200c but the \u2062fire had spread onto Lahainaluna Road. Her cell phone had also\u200b stopped working.<\/p>\n<p>She eventually made it to work by\u2063 doubling back onto Front Street\u200b navigating the high winds and fallen trees.<\/p>\n<p><em>Edited for clarity and formatting.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christy Albinson, 47, remains haunted by nightmares a month after the devastating Lahaina wildfire in West Maui. She describes her dreams as disturbing, with images of children buried in the sand. The trauma has left her feeling spooked and vulnerable, experiencing sudden panic attacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":2021476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2021475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2021475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2021476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2021475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2021475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2021475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}