'Don't know how I'm alive': Woman recounts harrowing escape from Maui wildfire

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Panic spread through Lahaina as fast as the wildfire started, and residents had limited options on where to run when a traffic jam trapped a number of people in their cars. 

"It was just horrible, it was absolutely horrible, it was just living hell," said Joy Richter, Lahaina survivor. 

Hours of taking in smoke have left Joy Richter with a raspy-sounding voice.

"It got so thick and dense that I put my hand up to my face and my hand was touching my nose, but I couldn't see my own hand," said Richter.

Richter spent five days in the hospital, but she's a survivor.

"I don't know how I'm alive," Richter said. 

The Richters, who moved to the island from St. Louis 22 years ago, heard no warning siren -- nobody in Lahaina did -- when flames, fanned by strong winds, blew into town a week ago, infuriating survivors. 

"They couldn't send us a flash to say, 'hey, Lahaina's on fire, everybody get out?'" said Richter. 

Richter was home with her dog, Bacon, and her blind 80-year-old father-in-law, JP Smith, when it happened. 

"A neighbor told me I needed to get out, and I needed to get out now," Richter said. 

But the rush to get out came to a terrifying halt as the single road out of town backed up.

"So, I started noticing the fire was coming behind me as I was trying to drive. I said if we stay in this car, we're gonna burn alive, we have to get out of here, JP, you have to come with me, you have to come with me now," said Richter.

Before they fled to the ocean, Richter noticed a bucket in the backseat. She'd complained to her husband, who left it there, but now, it seemed that bucket might come in handy as they sought refuge over a sea wall. 

"You could hear a symphony of car alarms going off, and then one after another, everybody's cars exploding. And you had the fire embers falling on us, as well as glass falling from all of our car windows. It would land on you and just catch on fire. My poor dog's fur, I had to put out fires on him so many times, because his fur caught on fire. And I took the bucket, and I would just take a scoop and throw it on my father-in-law, and I'd take a scoop and pour it on my dog, and I'd take a scoop and pour it on me. I was laying in the rocks in the water, just saying, 'please God, please.' I was like, 'please, just give me one good gust of air so I can get a fresh breath of air.' I didn't think I was gonna make it. And then finally, a fireman, one of them, God bless him -- I don't know who he is, but he picked me up and he threw me over his shoulder," said Richter. 

Firefighters were rushing survivors to the hospital. Her father-in-law, who wasn't moving, was left behind. 

"I didn't know if he was alive or dead. They said, 'you have to leave.' My dog refused to leave his side, and I kept telling him, I'm like, 'Bacon, you have to come with mommy now, you have to,' and he absolutely refused," said Richter.

Richter's husband went out in a desperate search, later, for their dog. The search continued for hours. 

"And he screamed his name one last time, and his head popped up, and he was with a homeless man. And the homeless man said that he found my dog on the rocks, laying next to a dead man. So, he sat with my father-in-law the whole time and just stayed there," said Richter. 

JP Smith would've turned 80 next month, but he didn't die alone.

"He's such a good baby, and he just wanted to stay there and protect his grandpa," said Richter.

Family members have put together a GoFundMe page as they come to terms with all that was lost. You can find it by clicking here.