‘It looked like a war movie’: Chaos and confusion for survivors escaping Hawaii wildfires
A teenager who jumped in the ocean to flee the deadly wildfires in Hawaii has said his family probably would have died if they hadn’t stuck together.
Noah Tomkinson, 19, was with his younger brother Milo, 13, and their mother in the historic town of Lahaina when the flames began to spread dangerously close.
They jumped into the Pacific Ocean where they waded in the water for five hours.
“We kind of had it in the back of our minds the whole time that we wanted to be next to the water so [when] things got really bad we could save ourselves by jumping into the ocean, and that is what it came to,” Mr Tomkinson said.
“If we’d walked across the street we would have been in the fire.”
Mr Tomkinson said he and his brother huddled around their mother to keep her warm.
“We didn’t save her, she also saved us.
“If any of us were alone I don’t know if we would have made it.
“It was the fact that all of us were together that helped us the most.”
Milo said: “I was just trying to survive, I was in survival mode.”
Once the flames had died down the family decided it was safe enough to go back to the shore.
Noah, right, and Milo Tomkinson
‘It looked like something out of a war movie’
Mike and Andreza Cicchino also had a dramatic escape from the fires in Lahaina.
The couple, who own a dog-sitting company, loaded five of the dogs they were looking after into a truck when they saw nearby houses on fire.
“It was pretty intense, you could see everybody running for their lives, people crying, people handing their babies to other people,” Mr Cicchino told Sky News.
Mike and Andreza Cicchino
He described chaos as “the smoke got so intense, we didn’t even know where to go” and the emergency services did not know where to send people, leading people to get stuck in traffic amid blocked roads.
They had to abandon their vehicle only to find they were surrounded by fire ahead of them and behind them.
He said they then took cover behind a seawall, which “protected us for most of the night”.
“We had to keep going out in the water, coming back in. We were even getting burnt in the water. There were times when the smoke cleared and I ran down to help other people, I tried to help as many people as I could. There’s babies and people that we never saw again. There’s bodies and people burnt.
“It looked like something out of a war movie. Like a bomb just went off in our town.
“During the whole time when we were hiding from the fire, just imagine hiding behind the wall with a giant blowtorch going over that wall. So you have 70mph fires, even on the other side of that wall you’re crunching down and the fire is still hitting you. It was one of the most terrifying experiences of our life.
“There’s times we didn’t think we were going to survive. We were going to pass out from just the smoke inhalation. The whole ordeal that we went through was at least 12 hours.”
Ms Cicchino said she struggled because she is not a good swimmer, adding: “It was horrible. I am traumatised.”
The couple were able to save four out of five of the dogs.
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At least 93 people have been confirmed dead after the wildfires in Hawaii – with the state’s governor warning the figure will rise.
It makes the disaster the deadliest wildfire the US has seen in the past century, surpassing the 85 who died in California’s Camp Fire in 2018.
Governor Josh Green told reporters it had been “an impossible day” on Saturday but that fire crews and police had been “extraordinary”.
He said it was the largest natural disaster the US state had ever faced.
It comes as workers use axes and dogs to search through charred remains of properties on Lahaina on the island of Maui.
Ruined homes are being marked with an orange X for an initial search and HR if human remains have been found.
Authorities are urging people with missing family members to give DNA samples to help authorities identify victims.
Two people have died and more than one million people evacuated after a storm bearing down on the Philippines intensified into a super typhoon and made landfall on Sunday.
Fung-wong started battering eastern and central parts of the country, causing power outages, and forcing President Ferdinand Marcos Jr to declare a state of emergency.
One person drowned in Catanduanes and firefighters recovered the body of a woman trapped under the debris of a collapsed home in Catbalogan City, officials said.
A satellite image shows Storm Fung-wong, which has intensified into a super typhoon. Pic: CSU/CIRA & JMA/JAXA/Handout via Reuters
A man walks in the rain with an umbrella as Typhoon Fung-wong approaches, in Cauayan, Isabela, Philippines. Pic: Reuters
Evacuations under way in Quezon province. Pic: Philippine Coast Guard via AP
An evacuation centre in Manila. Pic: Reuters
Packing sustained winds of 115mph and gusts of up to 140mph, Super Typhoon Fung-wong made landfall in Aurora province in central Luzon.
Those living in high-risk villages in northeastern provinces were told to evacuate, including in Bicol, a coastal region vulnerable to Pacific cyclones and mudflows from Mayon, one of the country’s most active volcanoes.
Defence secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr warned Fung-wong could affect a vast expanse of the country, including the capital Manila, and Cebu, the central province hit hardest by the deadly Typhoon Kalmaegi just days ago.
More than 200 people were killed in the earlier typhoon, and around 100 are still missing.
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Filipinos stranded on roofs amid Typhoon floods
Mr Teodoro Jr urged residents to heed evacuation orders, warning refusing to comply was dangerous and unlawful.
“We ask people to pre-emptively evacuate so that we don’t end up having to conduct rescues at the last minute, which could put the lives of police, soldiers, firefighters and coast guard personnel at risk,” he said in a public address.
More than 30 million people could be exposed to hazards posed by Fung-wong, the Office of Civil Defence said.
The projection of the route that will be taken by Super Typhoon Fung-wong by Japan’s national weather agency. Pic: JMA
In Isabela in northern Luzon, dozens of families were sheltering at a basketball court repurposed as an evacuation centre.
“We’re scared,” said Christopher Sanchez, 50, who fled his home with his family. “We’re here with our grandchildren and our kids. The whole family is in the evacuation area.”
Nearly 400 domestic and international flights have been cancelled, according to the civil aviation regulator.
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Deadly tornado tears through southern Brazil
Deadly tornado in Brazil
Meanwhile, a powerful tornado ripped through the southern state of Parana in Brazil – killing at least six and injuring more than 750 people, state officials said on Saturday.
The tornado left a trail of destruction, downing trees, overturning vehicles and damaging buildings.
Roads were also blocked and power lines damaged, with authorities saying around 1,000 people were displaced,
“We will continue to assist the people of Parana and provide all the help needed,” President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wrote on X.
The UK is deploying a specialist Royal Air Force team to help defend Belgium’s skies following a series of sightings of “rogue” drones, the defence secretary and his military chief have revealed.
The ground-based unit will be equipped with kit that can track and take down unmanned aerial systems.
It is not yet clear who is responsible for the drone incursions, which forced the country’s main airport near Brussels to close temporarily and have also impacted Belgian military bases.
However, there are suspicions that they could be linked to Russia.
Other NATO nations have also experienced similar problems, including Denmark and Germany.
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Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton, speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sky News, said his Belgian counterpart had called him to request British support.
Queen Camilla looks at counter-drone equipment during a visit to RAF Leeming, Northallerton, in September 2024. Pic: PA
“I had my Belgian opposite number – the chief of the defence staff – in touch with me this week, seeking our help to track and potentially defeat the drones,” he said.
“We agreed with the defence secretary on Friday that we would send our people and our equipment into Belgium to help them with the current problem they have got there.”
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Queen Camilla, who is an honorary air commodore, inspects counter-drone equipment. Pic: PA
John Healey, the defence secretary, said: “When our NATO allies call, we step up. Belgium requested urgent support to counter rogue drone activity at their military bases, so I’ve directed a small team of RAF specialists to deploy immediately.
“As hybrid threats grow, our strength lies in our alliances and our collective resolve to defend, deter and protect our critical infrastructure and airspace.”
The RAF team is trained and equipped to combat drones.
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