MAUI, HAWAII: A Lahaina resident recalled his battle to escape a wall of flames that destroyed the Hawaiian vacation paradise.
Dave Vogt witnessed images he'll never forget while frantically trying to save his boats from the blazing inferno.
Vogt observed people stuck in cars, helpless, unable to flee the oncoming blaze as he and his father rode away on dirt bikes. "If you stopped, you were dead. Animals were dead in the street, people were trying to get out," he stated.
"Everything was blowing up. Everything. Every five seconds you hear, 'Boom! Boom! Boom!'" Vogt, 40, told PEOPLE. "I think it was the gas tanks from the cars stuck on the roads."
The death toll from Maui wildfires now stands at 96, on Sunday, August 13, as per Reuters, making it the deadliest blaze in the US in more than 100 years.
Who is Dave Vogt?
Dave Vogt, runs a parasailing business in the tourist town of Lahaina. Vogt made the decision to drop his family off at a house five miles from Lahaina. He then grabbed his father, driving back to Lahaina, to move his boats from the harbor area.
But the roads were blocked by the time they arrived. In order to get to their boats, the two men ran there on foot.
The boats were swiftly transported to a secure location in an inlet. The two men then hopped on two dirt bikes and rode out of town.
Dave Vogt was one of thousands of locals and visitors scrambling to flee when Lahaina was destroyed on August 8 by hurricane-force winds that fanned the flames towards the parched fields near the town.
The restricted road access caused locals and visitors to leave on tight routes with little to no warning before flames engulfed Lahaina.
Many were thought to be dead as a result of their inability to exit their cars before the flames engulfed the backed-up vehicles.
"There was no opportunity to give a warning. It was faster than anyone could have pushed a warning button, it was windy and then the fire started and it went fast," Vogt recalls.
Lahaina man recalls how the winds came before the wildfires
Dave Vogt wasn't too worried at the start of the disaster when only a hurricane warning had been issued. Even a downed telephone pole was only a reminder for the family to get to the local Safeway to stock up on groceries in case things worsened.
As his wife entered the store, Vogt waited in his truck with the kids. The wind became really strong after that, he claims.
"Something didn’t feel right, so I told her to get out of the store," Vogt added. "All of a sudden, power lines came crashing down."
"But no sign of fire yet. I have a big truck. We jumped the curb, went up the hill and just [tried] to get out of Dodge." They turned around after five minutes to find smoke billowing everywhere, "just like an inferno."
Lahaina man used dirt bike to escape Maui wildfires
After dropping off his family 5 miles away, coming back with his father to rescue his boats, Dave Vogt and his father pedalled out of Lahaina on the two dirt bikes that Vogt had at the boatyard.
As the fire swept down on the town, they avoided the traffic jams where people were stranded and felt the heat rise.
"It was hot, just like a torch, and the wind was so strong and swirling and the glow kept getting bigger and bigger, pushing down towards us," Vogt noted. "The fire jumped Front Street and jumped into the harbor."
People were struck in their cars in between. "I think people were scared to get out because there was fire all around them," Vogt added.
Is Dave Vogt OK?
Vogt claims he is fine right now. However, he worries about his staff members who lost everything in the fire. He also has set up a fundraiser for support.
"They are the ones who need the help right now. They barely got out with the shirts on their backs," Vogt mentioned. "So I’m hoping a GoFundMe can help them."
Lahaina man returns after Maui wildfires to find bodies and melted wreckage
On his return on Wednesday, August 9, Vogt examined the wreckage at the harbor, which included a melted-away aluminum boat, burnt-out cars, boats smoking in the bay, and bodies on the seawall.
"There were a lot the night before,” Vogt says. "But when I was there we only saw two or three. They must have cleared a lot. There's a section of cars they're not touching."
Vogt claims the rescuers cleared every road he observed save one stretch of the gridlocked Front Street.
"I think they're not doing that because there's people still burned in those cars," Vogt claimed.
