...they drive their victims into swamps and quicksand areas to make their deaths longer and more terrifying...
If we remember, people were apparently told to jump into the water.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... waii-fires
A survivor’s harrowing escape from Maui blaze: ‘We have to jump in the water’
15 Aug 2023
Flames were everywhere and Ana Carolina Penedo had a decision to make. She could stay in her car and hope that the line of vehicles attempting to flee Lahaina would miraculously start to move, or she and her mother could run.
The fire ravaging the former capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom was consuming everything in sight: shops and historic buildings, a beloved 150-year-old banyan tree. Outside the car, embers landed on people trying to evacuate on foot. It became clear to Penedo, 42, that there was only one safe place in reach – the ocean.
“We have to jump in the water,” she told her mother, who nervously agreed even though she didn’t know how to swim.
They fled toward the water, what seemed to be the best option in an emergency that was unfolding without warning or guidance from officials. Jumping over a rock wall, they splashed themselves with water to put out the embers raining down as dark smoke burned their eyes. Dozens of others joined them on that stretch of water – including infants and burn victims – with help nowhere in sight as flames moving a mile a minute laid waste to Lahaina. Some clung to the rocks while others swam.
Penedo spent the hours shivering and cold, coming in and out of the water, as she imagined how things could get worse – she feared passing out, or her mother going into shock and requiring CPR. Meanwhile, she tried to comfort the 69-year-old woman – ”The worst is behind us,” she told her...