‘We literally ran for our lives.’ LI couple escapes Maui wildfires
The couple says they saw a 10-foot fire coming toward them and they were sprinting while trying to cover their mouths and eyes.
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A Long Island couple narrowly escaped the wildfires in Maui while vacationing on the island.
Jenna Gardner and Scott Puric say they did not realize anything was wrong until the sky started changing.
Gardner says it was 3:30 p.m. and it looked like it was midnight outside.
“It was completely black, there was debris all in the sky,” Gardner. “There were ashes falling.”
The couple says they saw a 10-foot fire coming toward them and they were sprinting while trying to cover their mouths and eyes.
“There’s no beating around the bush, like, we literally ran for our lives from a fire,” Gardner says.
Gardner and Puric had a 6-mile walk back to their villa.
They survived off cold pizza, leftover Chinese food and a bag of chips the next few days before booking a flight to Honolulu.
They say they’ll never forget the aftermath of what they saw.
“We saw families living out of their cars with their animals and children with like all of their remaining items that they had, and it was absolutely heartbreaking,” Gardner says.
Their family was able to book them flights back to Long Island.
