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- [00:00]
Narrator
There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad free. Listen with Wondry plus in the Wondery app as a member of Noiser plus at noiser.com or in Apple Podcasts. Or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts@intohristory.com Everyone has a day now and then. Sometimes it's more like a week. Nothing really goes as planned. Too much gets thrown at you at once. Or maybe you're just not in the mood or temporarily ill equipped to handle what the universe has in store for you. Most of us know how to handle these moments. We can just stick it out. Good things come to those who wait. You know this too shall pass, et cetera. A little more proactively. You could go for a walk, go work out, find a friend to talk to. Or maybe some compensatory fun like a great night out or a bit of retail therapy might work. Let's not forget real therapy, too. There are so many ways to deal with a bad day. But some bad days are badder than others. Like if your idyllic Hawaiian home is suddenly threatened by a raging wildfire and you face not just the destruction of your house, your community, but the real prospect that you might die. There aren't sufficient coping mechanisms for a bad day of this magnitude. You need to do much more than just cope. You must survive. On today's Saturday matinee, we bring you an episode from the fantastic Noiser podcast. Real survival stories. Astonishing tales of ordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives. I hope you enjoy While you're listening, be sure to search for and follow real survival stories. We put a link in the show notes to make it easy for.
- [01:51]
Anneliese Cochrane
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- [02:10]
John Hopkins
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- [02:12]
Anneliese Cochrane
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- [02:20]
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- [03:20]
John Hopkins
It's Tuesday, August 8, 2023, on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Just before 5pm, a column of black smoke rises above the coastal town of Lahaina. 80 mile an hour winds screech down desolate streets, fueling the spread of a massive uncontrollable wildfire. Flames leap from building to building, engulfing timber frame houses, devouring historic landmarks and reducing palm lined boulevards to scorched earth. The fire has formed a horseshoe shaped ring around the town. From the north, south and east, the blaze works its way seaward, steadily advancing towards a narrow strip of coastline where local residents and tourists have rushed to escape and where they now find themselves surrounded. Among them, sitting behind the wheel of her idling car is 30 year old Anneliese Cochrane. With the roads blocked, terrified people have started hurling themselves into the rough ocean, trading one extreme for another.
- [04:34]
Anneliese Cochrane
You saw people kind of choosing all of those different things. There was people on the land still. There was people that were sitting on the rocks. There was people who were kind of kneeling in the water. And then there was also people who had begun to grab debris. There was tons of debris because the buildings were just falling apart from the wind and so people were grabbing onto stuff and floating out. With that, I could tell there was at least 100 people. And the people that were drifting out into the ocean were drifting out farther than I could see them. They were disappearing out into the smoke.
- [05:02]
John Hopkins
Anneliese watches on in silent horror. Sooner or later, she'll be forced to leave her car and throw herself on the mercy of the churning waves. Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives. In this episode we meet Anneliese Cochran. She's a marine conservationist living A life of blissful contentment in Lahaina, a historic seaside town on Maui in Hawaii. That is until the afternoon of August 8, 2023, when everything changes. A deadly wildfire driven by strong winds will descend on the quiet community, forcing thousands to flee their homes.
- [06:08]
Anneliese Cochrane
I didn't know exactly how close I was to the fire. We had seen flames about a block away as we decided to leave. But the difference between the fire being two blocks away and one block away was a matter of seconds. That was kind of the moment that I realized like I am trapped in like a horseshoe ring of fire and my only out is the ocean.
- [06:31]
John Hopkins
I'm John Hopkins from Noiser. This is Real Survival Stories. It's midday on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023, in the quaint seaside town of Lahaina. Annelise is at home pottering about in her apartment. Outside, palm trees and power lines thrash about in high winds all morning. Gusts of over 80 miles an hour have been battering the small community, forcing business closures and keeping most of Lahaina's 13,000 residents indoors. Weather like this is not uncommon on Maui. The island is located squarely in the path of powerful southwesterly trade winds. But even for this blustery island, today's gusts seem to be blowing with an unusual intensity. Anneliese glances up at the windows rattling in their frames. Her apartment is located on the ground floor of a low income housing complex right in the heart of Lahaina Town. It isn't much, but it's everything the 30 year old needs. It's home. Photographs of her friends and family adorn the walls. Pinned to the fridge is a picture of Anneliese with her colleagues from the Pacific Whale foundation, the marine conservation nonprofit where she's worked for the last eight years.
- [08:31]
Anneliese Cochrane
I have always had a deep love for the ocean. It started when I was young, way before I went to college in Florida. My family would take Easter trips down to a beautiful little island off the coast of Florida and I just remember sitting in the sand and waiting all day just to see a glimpse of a dolphin. And it just sealed my love of those particular animals and I started to find a lot of comfort in the ocean.
- [08:54]
John Hopkins
Anneliese grew up just outside of Washington, D.C. but over the course of these family holidays to Florida, her interest in the underwater world develops into a passion. Parental encouragement also played a part.
- [09:09]
Anneliese Cochrane
My dad had also been a huge ocean fanatic prior to my birth. He had been a scuba diver, abalone diver. He was a cool guy. He was an Eagle Scout and He cared a lot about teaching his kids to be strong and prepared and independent. He unfortunately passed when I was 15 years old. And I think that really defined a lot of who I am. Both the lessons that I had learned growing up around the ocean and just loving being in the water, but also the safety lessons that come from having an Eagle Scout dad. And also going through certifications like scuba training. You know, as soon as I got my dive certification, would start to go on trips just for the two of us where we could go and do dives. And I'm really blessed that I got the chance to get in the water with him.
- [10:03]
John Hopkins
At college, Anneliese majored in environmental science. And after graduation, she began looking for work in marine conservation. It took about a year of applying and hoping before eventually she received the offer. She'd been waiting for a seasonal staff position with a whale watching company in Lahaina. She flew out for what was supposed to be a single tourist season. But after six months in Hawaii, she wasn't ready to leave. She stayed for another six months and another.
- [10:35]
Anneliese Cochrane
And then it just turned into like one more season, one more season, one more season. Because I fell in love with the place. The whales and dolphins were awesome, but Lahaina town was magical. It was such an amazing community of people. There was such a deeply rooted culture. And so like the stories that you hear about, they happened where you're walking every day. You know, Lahaina, the town where I lived and where I worked out of was at one point the kingdom of Hawaii. It was where the kings lived. There was a palace. They had lined the streets with lavish breadfruit trees. You're like walking on history with every step you're taking in Lahaina. And you felt that it was a beautiful place to be. And so I just couldn't leave. Once I was there, I was just totally captivated.
- [11:21]
John Hopkins
Anneliese has made close friends. She's become an active part of the town's tight knit community. Professionally, things are going well too. After just a few years, she was promoted up the chain of command to second mate, directly overseeing the entire fleet of whale watching boats out of Lahaina Harbor.
- [11:39]
Anneliese Cochrane
It was just really blessed. It was just making big moves in my career and was loving where I was at and really felt like I had found home there.
- [11:53]
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- [12:50]
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- [13:33]
John Hopkins
Today is a Tuesday, a work day for Anneliese. But due to the high winds, her company can't take any boats out, so she's been told to stay home.
- [13:43]
Anneliese Cochrane
I had the day off of work, which was kind of fun, and it was, you know, not a nice day to go out and enjoy Hawaii. But I realized that because the winds were so strong, it had been blowing palm fronds into the roads. And so I had gone outside and I'd gathered some of the palm fronds and brought them into my apartment and was cutting them apart and making little woven palm frond roses, kind of like a local craft because I couldn't get any of my work done. And so I was like, oh, I'll just sit here and do a little, a little craft in my apartment.
- [14:12]
John Hopkins
As she folds and weaves the palm fronds, a quiet chirping drifts over from a birdcage in the corner of the room. Smiling. Anneliese stands and goes over to it. A few days ago, she rescued a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest. As a devoted conservationist, Annelise would typically nurse the animal back to health before returning it to the wild. But this particular bird belongs to an invasive species so rather than letting it go, she decided to keep the flightless, featherless chick as a pet. She's named it Chickadee. After feeding Chickadee its midday meal, Anneliese checks her computer for local weather updates. Earlier today, reports of a nearby wildfire were circulating on social media. Wildfires have always been a fixture of Hawaiian life, but with climate change leading to reduced rainfall, they're becoming increasingly common. As a result, Maui's local authority closely monitors weather events and has introduced a sophisticated system of alerts to notify residents of any potential danger. But when Anneliese tries to open her newsfeed, she finds the Internet won't load. Strange. Maybe the high winds have caused a power outage. She picks up her phone and calls her mum, who lives 3,000 miles away in Maryland.
- [15:41]
Anneliese Cochrane
I had called my mom because I was having some Internet connection issues. It was taking forever for a page to load or some pages wouldn't load at all. And so I called her and was like, hey, can you check a couple of these pages for me? I see that there's a fire. So she looked and she's like, no, you know, they've cleared it. They said it's 100% contained already. I'm looking at the updates right now. Like, there was a fire. So you might see some smoke and you might smell it. But like, nope, says it's 100% contained. So you're all good.
- [16:06]
John Hopkins
The authorities must be completely certain before declaring a wildfire 100% contained. The fact that they've released a statement is reassuring. Anneliese returns to her palm fronds and whiles away another couple of hours. Then at around 3pm she stops what she's doing and sniffs the air, frowning. Getting up from her chair, she goes to the front door and opens it. Aside from the abnormally strong winds, it's a typical Maui day. Bright sunshine and blue skies. The summer air fragrant with hibiscus flowers and mango. But Anneliese thinks she can detect something else on the breeze. Smoke. Turning to her left, she sees her elderly next door neighbor, Freeman, leaning on his door frame, quietly watching the world go by. Annelise calls out to him.
- [17:04]
Anneliese Cochrane
And so I shouted over, you know, hello. And I asked him, I was like, hey, Freeman, I'm smelling something in the air. It smells like smoke. Do you smell something right now? And he was a little bit elderly. He said he didn't smell anything. And so I attributed it to just like, well, I knew there was a fire up the mountain. All of this smoke is blowing this way in the wind. And the winds are strong. They were whistling like crazy. And so it's probably just some ash, some debris, some smoke that's blowing down the mountain towards us. And so I didn't think a ton of it.
- [17:35]
John Hopkins
Annelise steps back inside her apartment. To help pass the time, she decides to take a long, leisurely shower. About an hour later, she's stepping out of her bathroom, dressed, and wringing the last few drops of water from her hair, when suddenly, the piercing wail of smoke detectors shatters the peace and quiet. Can the wind really be blowing smoke all the way down from the mountain? Annalise hurries outside.
- [18:10]
Anneliese Cochrane
The sky was not blue anymore. It wasn't black yet, but it was very dark, dark brown and kind of orangey. And it would, as the wind was blowing, it would blow small clearings out where sometimes you'd see this, you know, flash of the blue sky. And it would almost look like you're like, oh, wait, it is daytime. And then it would turn brown again. It would look like nighttime. And that was super alarming because just an hour ago, it was blue skies. A bunch of my neighbors were sort of gathering out front of my apartment and sort of communicating with one another to figure out what exactly was going on. We were trying to compare notes of, you know, has anybody gotten an evacuation text? Has anybody been able to see anything online about this? And we were all so confused. Cause we had all seen, like, there was a fire, but it was contained. They said it was contained.
- [18:58]
John Hopkins
The sky now turns a deep shade of orange. The wind carries the distinct aroma of wood smoke and burning leaves. Anneliese trusts the local authorities. She knows that if there was an emergency, the hyena's public alarm system would have sounded by now. But even so, if her experience working on boats has taught her anything, it's to hope for the best and plan for the worst. So while her neighbors continue to mutter anxiously among themselves, Anneliese ducks back inside her apartment and hastily starts packing a go bag.
- [19:35]
Anneliese Cochrane
I just started grabbing the things that I had always said I would grab, which was my jewelry box that had jewelry from a lot of my deceased family members. Things that were precious and irreplaceable. I had this drawer of paper scraps that I was scrapbooking. So concert tickets, airplane tickets, Polaroid pictures with my friends. Just, like, all these memories of little things from my life. And I took that entire drawer and I dumped it into one of those tarp IKEA bags. God bless ikea. And threw my jewelry box into There.
- [20:07]
John Hopkins
Finally, Anneliese grabs Chickadee's birdcage. Then, with the bag slung over one shoulder, she rushes out to the parking lot and stashes her precious items on the back seat, just in case. She then heads back to the front of the building, where her neighbors are still congregated. By now, the situation has escalated even further. Plumes of black smoke billow overhead, partially blotting out the sun. Fiery debris drifts down like snowflakes. Embers have started to land on the roofs of houses, where they continue to crackle and burn. It's becoming clearer by the second. This is a serious fire. And it is getting closer. One of Anneliese's neighbors, a man named Steve, has taken matters into his own hands.
- [21:04]
Anneliese Cochrane
As we were talking, Steve was spraying them with a hose. And at first it was like one ember would fall and he'd put it out and another one would fall and he'd put it out and then it was like six would fall and he could put three out and then 12 would fall and he could put another five out and then four, 40 would fall. And it was just like getting exponential. And you could just see that there was no holding back those embers at that point.
- [21:28]
John Hopkins
Hearing cries of alarm, Annaliese turns her head. Bright orange flames flicker hungrily above the rooftops one block to the south. Each gust of wind pushing them ever closer to the housing complex. Still, there are no sirens, no texts to evacuate. But their own eyes confirm it's time to go. There's a flurry of panicked activity as people begin dashing inside to grab car keys, along with any last minute personal effects. Others start taking off on foot. Before rushing to her car, Anneliese seeks out two fellow residents with whom she's developed a close relationship. Her elderly neighbor Freeman, and a kindly middle aged woman named Atina.
- [22:15]
Anneliese Cochrane
Atina was a woman who lived upstairs from me. She was in the apartment right above mine. And she is a woman who is like a saint walking on this earth. She is the most kind, incredible woman. She had such a big heart. She was the kind of woman who would stop everything she was doing and ask you if you needed help. If she saw even an. An inclination that something was wrong.
- [22:38]
John Hopkins
Anneliese rushes over to Atina and Freeman. She urges them to get in her car. They need to evacuate now. But Freeman, who was born in Lahaina some 80 years ago, doesn't want to go anywhere. He's a little unsteady on his feet, and he doesn't feel comfortable leaving the security of his own apartment. He shakes his head and retreats back into his doorway.
- [23:02]
Anneliese Cochrane
Atina was not gonna have that. None of us would. But Atina especially was just too close with him. So she told him he needed to come out, and he said no, that he was gonna stay. And she goes, okay, well, then, I'm staying with you. And she walked into his apartment, and she sat down on the couch. And this is the kind of woman that Atina was. That was not a show. She would have sat there the entire night. She would have easily given up her life just to be with him as he gave up his. And it's just hard to wrap my head around that. And the second that she walked into his apartment and sat down on the couch, it clicked for Freeman. And he knew, like, he would put himself in danger, but he would never put Atina in danger.
- [23:47]
John Hopkins
Finally, Freeman agrees to leave, but he doesn't want to get inside Anneliese's car. He says he'd feel safer on foot. The blaze is intensifying, Extreme heat radiating from it. As it approaches, tendrils of fire lick at the palm fronds overhanging the parking lot. Visibility is declining rapidly. The air is becoming dry and scratchy to breathe. There's no time for Annaliese to negotiate. All she can do is wish Freeman and Atina good luck as they stagger off in the direction of the ocean.
- [24:23]
Anneliese Cochrane
But as they walked away, a giant. It's like a burning bush or something, like a giant piece of flaming debris was launched over my head. It probably had traveled a full block or two. It was really high up in the air, and it came crashing down between the two of us. And I just remember the force of it hitting the ground kind of, like, oxygenated the fire, and it just burst into this giant ball of flames. It was something I had of a movie. It's like you see these two people you love walking away from you, and then this, like, wall of fire just appears between the two of you, and you just know, okay, like, now I'm on my own. Now I'm by myself here.
- [25:06]
John Hopkins
Annelise rushes to her. She throws it into gear and reverses out of the parking lot, the wheels screeching of a hot tarmac. As soon as she pulls out into the road, it's like a light switch is flipped. Suddenly, she is plunged into darkness as the smoke envelops her.
- [25:28]
Anneliese Cochrane
It's like the darkest, darkest black where it's like your eyes are seeking something. They're straining themselves just to see something. And there's just nothing there. It's like you almost feel like you're crazy and you want to just rub your eyes just to get a little pinhole of light to come through. Because it just feels insane that you could have your eyes open. You're looking around and you know it's daylight and you can't see anything.
- [25:51]
John Hopkins
Annelise inches forwards. She squints through the windscreen, her foot hovering above the accelerator. It's a narrow one way street lined with parked cars. Fortunately, she's driven down here countless times before. She can find her way through muscle memory. Where to turn, where to brake. She just hopes nobody steps out into the road.
- [26:19]
Anneliese Cochrane
I was just like blindly accelerating forward, just hoping to get out of the smoke. And that is the scariest feeling, is like feeling like you're fighting for your own survival and knowing I could hurt somebody right now. And that's the last thing I want to do is hurt anybody who's also in the same position I am.
- [26:40]
John Hopkins
Eventually she reaches the stop sign at the end of the road. She turns right and pulls out onto Front Street. Lahaina's seafront promenade lined with shops and restaurants. The air seems a little clearer here. Anneliese can see more than a few inches ahead. But as she peers down Front street, she's met with a terrifying sight. A sea of red brake lights stretching the entire length of the road. It's complete gridlock. Meanwhile, over her shoulder. The fire must be gaining on her.
- [27:16]
Anneliese Cochrane
Where I had left from like up the mountain. We knew that fire was coming from that direction and the smoke seemed heavier. On the kind of more southern side of Front Street. You're just looking at the air quality as like your best indicator of where there is or isn't fire. And there was better air quality, kind of like the north direction.
- [27:35]
John Hopkins
Front street is usually bustling with happy locals and tourists. Now it looks like a war zone. Pedestrians rush along the sidewalks, covering their mouths with their T shirts, weaving their way through the hazy air. Suddenly there's a frantic hammering on Anneliese's car window. She turns to see a terrified man's face pressed up against the glass.
- [28:01]
Anneliese Cochrane
As I was kind of sitting there in bumper to bumper traffic and getting my thoughts together. A tourist, I think he was a tourist, his name was Naim. Jumped into my car. I just remember turning around and asking him what his name was. And I asked him to please be kind. I just remember. I just like I was like. I just let a strange man into my car in the middle of an emergency like this could Be a disaster. And I just turned around. I was like, what's your name? Please be kind.
- [28:21]
John Hopkins
A tourist. Naim takes a moment to steady himself. His chest rises and falls with short, panicked breaths. When he looks at Anneliese, his eyes are filled with pleading urgency. He wants her to turn around and drive back inland.
- [28:38]
Anneliese Cochrane
He was concerned about the smoke. He wanted me to turn up the mountain. And I was like, no, dude, that's where I came from. And I was like, and you came from the south, right? And he's like, yeah, I came from there. And there's fire down there too. So that was kind of when I confirmed, like, oh yeah, there's definitely fire in the more south direction of us. There's definitely fire coming down the mountain. And so we're just trying to get north now.
- [28:58]
John Hopkins
Anneliese knows for sure the only safe direction is north. But snarled up in this traffic, they're going nowhere fast. She and Naeem sit breathing the stale air circulated by the car's ac. Anneliese pushes the pedal, inching forward in tiny increments. But whatever progress they appear to be making is misleading.
- [29:24]
Anneliese Cochrane
And ultimately I realized that the creeping forward that we were experiencing was just because cars were pulling out into the different lanes, onto the grass. People were just trying to move however they could, but they weren't actually getting through.
- [29:39]
John Hopkins
The road is totally jammed. Anneliese glances over at Naeem. He's growing more and more frantic. He wants to get out and continue on foot. But Anneliese shakes her head. They're better off inside the car where they can breathe the filtered air. By now, the smoke has caught up with them, billowing overhead in great black clouds, belched out by the raging fire, which is now surely only one or two streets over. Naeem, however, seems insistent. And Anneliese isn't going to force him to stay against his will. She turns to her passenger and tells him bluntly, if you want to get.
- [30:22]
Anneliese Cochrane
Out, if you want to go somewhere, like, do whatever you want. But like, I'm. I'm sorry, you're not going to drive my car either. Like, I'm going to stay on my course. This is what I'm doing. And I remember him getting out of my car and ran forwards, the direction we were all trying to travel. And he just ran like headlong into the smoke. And I just saw him disappear into the smoke. And then I started like, waiting. 30 seconds went by. It felt like a minute had gone by. And he's like not coming back out of this very thick smoke. And so I remember just hitting a moment of panic, of like, why did I just let this man run off? Like, oh my God, he just ran into. He just killed himself.
- [31:02]
John Hopkins
Her eyes search the wall of smoke, willing name to appear, but he doesn't. The seconds crawled by and then fortunately.
- [31:15]
Anneliese Cochrane
He came back out a couple of seconds after. I was like really starting to panic and he came up and he pounded on my car window and I rolled it down and he confirmed me. He's like, it's all flames up there. It's all on fire. Everything's on fire. There's no way out.
- [31:28]
John Hopkins
Before Anneliese can speak, Naeem turns and runs back the way he came, disappearing once more into the surging ash cloud. She sits there motionless, her options running out. Slowly she turns her head to the left. The gray ocean rolls against the shoreline, waves crashing against the rock wall which separates Front street from the Pacific. The fire has Lahaina surrounded. It's closing in on all sides, all directions except for one.
- [32:04]
Anneliese Cochrane
That was kind of the moment that I realized I am trapped in like a horseshoe ring of fire and my only out is the ocean.
- [32:17]
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- [33:05]
Anneliese Cochrane
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- [33:41]
John Hopkins
It'S just before 5pm analyst pulls her car off the road onto a scrubby patch of grass. Beyond the wooden rooftops, she can see the red glow of the fire. She can hear the crackle of the flames as they feed on the dry timber structures. Soon the Blaze will make its way to the seafront, but that moment hasn't arrived just yet. And her maritime training has taught her to wait until the very last moment before abandoning ship.
- [34:12]
Anneliese Cochrane
One of the things that they teach you in an abandoned ship drill, they say that you should not get off of your boat until you are stepping up into a life raft. You should never step down into a life raft. It should be an upwards motion into a life raft, which is basically saying you should stay on your boat until the second that you have to get off.
- [34:31]
John Hopkins
Anneliese gives herself an ultimatum. When the building next to her catches fire, that's when she'll go. Not a moment before and not a second later. In the meantime, she strains her ears for sirens, but it's unlikely that any firefighters will be able to reach them. The Maui County Fire Department simply doesn't have the resources to cope with something of this magnitude.
- [34:56]
Anneliese Cochrane
We have a minimal force of firefighters on this island that we're on anyways. And they can only fight the edge. They can't just go drop themselves into the center and fight the middle. And we were smack dab in the middle, you know, we were just like, you know, how. How could they get to us?
- [35:10]
John Hopkins
Far more in hope than expectation, Anneliese scans the road, searching the haze for flashing blue lights. But nothing materializes. Instead, what does materialize are two stooped figures slowly emerging through the smoke.
- [35:28]
Anneliese Cochrane
After about a minute of sitting there, I saw, unbelievably, Freeman and Atina walk up and kind of situate themselves right across the street from where I'd parked my car. They had made it the exact same distance that I had.
- [35:43]
John Hopkins
Holding her breath, Anneliese jumps out of the car. Through the blizzard of swirling ash and embers, she crosses the streets to where Freeman and Atina have just arrived at the water's edge from the road. The seawall that separates Front street from the ocean is about knee high. On the other side, it's a five foot jumble of boulders sloping steeply into the churning waves. All along the shoreline, desperate people are clambering down the rocks where they're at least partly sheltered from the encroaching flames. Patina is in the process of helping Freeman across the wall when Anneliese runs up to them. It's a bittersweet reunion. Thankfully, everyone remains unharmed. But the hardest part of this ordeal is surely still to come. Anneliese and Atina help Freeman across the partition. Once he's situated with his back against a boulder, Annelise returns to her car. She has one final job to do before she abandons ship.
- [36:53]
Anneliese Cochrane
I took that moment to go back to my car for a minute and gathered the things that I had left there. Took a couple minutes in the fresh air, and in those couple of minutes in the fresh air, I also it was dinner time for my baby bird and so I fed it another meal because I didn't know how long I was gonna be in the ocean. And I figured it would be really, really hungry by the time I got back. Baby birds need to eat frequently. And I think I hadn't really wrap my head around the fact that, like, I would lose my baby bird, but I felt in the moment like the safest place for it would be in my car because it certainly would not do well in the smoke. And I was about to get into the ocean, which is also not where baby birds belong.
- [37:35]
John Hopkins
With a heavy heart, Anneliese shuts Chickadee's birdcage. Then she takes one final breath of clean air, grabs her bag from the backseat and heads out into the thickening smoke. The fire has now reached the buildings along Front Street. Blistering waves of heat scorch Anneliese's back as she approaches the seawall. Before climbing over the barrier, she removes her cell phone from her bag. She goes to send a last minute text to her mum explaining what's happening and where she is. But when it comes to writing the message, she stops.
- [38:16]
Anneliese Cochrane
I remember trying to communicate like, how do you tell somebody that you're about to die, that you love, that you want them to know where you are so that somebody comes for you, but you feel like that is your goodbye? And I look back and I laugh so hard at my text messages now because they're ridiculous. I said something like, line is gone, everything's burned down, my apartment's gone. I'm about to jump into the ocean. Lol. Because I like, I couldn't even. I look back, I'm like, wow, that, you know, that's just the mark of a woman who's having a hard time processing what is happening right there.
- [38:54]
John Hopkins
Annelise taps out the message and presses send. Then she climbs over the seawall and makes her way down to Atina and Freeman, who are sheltering on the rocks near the waves. Choosing the right position requires careful thought. They need to be able to fully submerge themselves in the ocean if necessary, while also staying close enough to the rocks to avoid being carried off by the current. Some people are clinging onto bits of debris and swimming out into the open ocean. The sight Fills Anneliese with dread.
- [39:29]
Anneliese Cochrane
I felt very strongly like that would be one of the worst calls we could make is going really far out because you're losing control in that moment. You are fighting against currents that are twice as strong now because of the winds. You're in murky, murky water. And you're at unfortunately prime time feeding hour for sharks. And I'm not one of those people that likes to strike fear in people's hearts about sharks. There really aren't. There's nothing to be feared with sharks. Unless you're in literally this exact situation. This is the situation you should be scared of sharks because it's surfy water, it's murky water. There's hundreds of panicked people in the water flailing around. It is the worst place to be in terms of sharks. And there's tons of sharks in Hawaii. Maui has the highest amount of shark attacks in Hawaii.
- [40:16]
John Hopkins
Anneliese urges those around her to stay close to the rocks. But for some, risking the sharks and the currents is the better of two horrendous options. There are now approximately 100 people gathered around this rocky length of coastline, Pinned between seething ocean and raging fire. Meanwhile, as the inferno builds along Front street, pieces of burning debris are being carried by the wind dropping over their heads. Charred objects land around them in the water. Sizzling and hissing.
- [40:52]
Anneliese Cochrane
Stuff was blowing huge chunks of debris. I think that's one of those other things that's hard to express. Is like this is not, you know, little things. This is giant sheets of plywood two by four, like huge pieces of debris coming off of buildings and things. And so people were grabbing onto stuff and floating out with that. And so I could tell there was at least 100 people. And the people that were drifting out into the ocean were drifting out farther than I could see them. They were disappearing out into the smoke.
- [41:18]
John Hopkins
Annelise and Atina wet their hair with seawater to protect against burning embers. They lift their T shirts to their mouths and suck air through the fabric. They assist strangers too, Helping parents dampen their kids hair, Advising them to breathe through their clothes. The Heiner's community spirit has never been needed more than now. Amid the commotion, Anneliese mentions to Atina that she tried to send a text to her mum. But she isn't sure if the message got through. Tina hands Anneliese her own phone. She has service and Anneliese can call anyone she wants. Anneliese dials the number. Soon her mom's muffled voice appears at the end of the line.
- [42:05]
Anneliese Cochrane
I Was able to call my mom and talk to her for just a couple of seconds. And it was so nice to just be able to tell her what was going on. But as I was talking to her, this woman comes running up to us like screaming in hysterics. She's absolutely freaking out. And she's like motioning that like, I have to give her the phone. She's like, give me the phone. Give me the phone. And so I. I felt like I had at least like I had talked to my mom. She knew where I was. She knew what was going on. She knew I was in an emergency. And so I was like, hey, mom, I have to go. Like, somebody needs the phone. We all have to call somebody quickly. So I told her I left her and hung up.
- [42:42]
John Hopkins
Anneliese hands the phone to the panicking woman whose name she learns is Michelle. She also learns the reason for her distress.
- [42:49]
Anneliese Cochrane
I found out a little bit of her story before she made her phone call. She was on her way to go and save her dad. Her dad was elderly and was in a building that was a little bit north of us. And it was basically like on the other side of this wall of fire that was blocking us. And she couldn't get through. And she was devastated because he was waiting for her. He wasn't going to evacuate until she got there.
- [43:14]
John Hopkins
Personal tragedies are unfolding everywhere. Most of these human stories will remain hidden from Anneliese until they emerge later in the shape of statistics, death tolls and hospital records. After a few nail biting moments, Michel manages to get through to her father and warn him to evacuate. But this does little to calm her down.
- [43:38]
Anneliese Cochrane
I remember her husband was with her and he looked overwhelmed. He didn't know how to calm her. And he was just. He was heartbroken as well. And I just remember feeling like this was a situation that I could help with. I was like, I can do something here. And we had already contacted her dad. He was going to go. And so I just remember grabbing her by the shoulders and looking her in the eye and telling her. I said, michelle, I am going to live today. That's my goal. I'm going to live. And if you would like to live, I recommend that you stay with me. Because I'm going to live.
- [44:10]
John Hopkins
Michelle nods, Seeming to draw strength from Anneliese's fighting talk. Giving voice to her own resolve has a marked effect on Anneliese too. She's determined to outlast these flames. But all the while the blaze is intensifying. Ocean spray mingles with ash and debris. Just before the sunlight disappears behind a screen of smoke. Anneliese looks at Atina and Freeman and sees her own fear mirrored in their faces. They have no idea what the night has in store. But one thing is clear. If they're going to survive this, then they must stick together. Next time we return to Anneliese and to the wildfire that continues to rage in Lahaina.
- [45:07]
Anneliese Cochrane
Some of these pieces of debris were so large that they would hit the ocean and they wouldn't go out. The water wouldn't extinguish them because it wasn't reaching all of the different parts of that burning debris that was now floating on the surface. And so the waves would start pushing flaming debris at you. Even the ocean could burn you.
- [45:25]
John Hopkins
That's next time on REAL survival stories.
- [45:33]
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- [45:37]
Anneliese Cochrane
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- [45:39]
Amazon Advertiser
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