Maui firefighters share harrowing battle against the Lahaina inferno

Through the afternoon and into evening, Kohler and her crewmates chased the fire across the mountainside, in neighborhoods above downtown Lahaina. They hollered at people watering their homes with garden hoses to get out. They picked spots to fight the fire, the streams from their hoses bending sideways with the wind, and taking cover behind their trucks when the toxic plumes swept toward them, only to move again because the heat prevented them from getting close enough to make a difference. 

“As we’re going, these people are yelling at us, ‘Our house is on fire, our house is on fire.’ We’re like, ‘We have to go this way. I’m sorry.’ It was just devastating,” Kohler said. “It’s like, how do we make it so that there’s less damage, you know, so all this whole place doesn’t burn?”