A couple who lost their Maui home during the wildfires said they learned the devastating news by watching helicopter footage of the destruction.
"I was just scanning it and pausing every time I could and eventually found our lot and it's nothing but ash, including both of our cars," said Dillon Mowery. "Everything's gone."
Mowery and his fiancée Amanda Mason spoke with Eyewitness News Sunday from Africa where they are currently on vacation. The couple lives in Lahaina where dangerous fires consumed most of the historic town. The blazes are already the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century, with a death toll of at least 96."I think I can speak for both of us on this is the immediate first feeling was overwhelming guilt," said Mowery. "Overwhelming guilt for being here, on a vacation, while everyone we know and love and every thing we know and love is in flames.
On the day the fires started raging, they dropped off their belongings and went to lunch but couldn't return.Brooke's mother received a troubling phone call from her daughter as the winds picked up and the fire spread."She was right in the middle of it and she said within 30 minutes, it was black at 4 p.m. It was like it was midnight out. They just knew that they weren't getting their stuff," said Brooke's sister Danielle Pancheri.
"Their homes ... jobs," Mowery added. "You can't forget how many people you have in your corner until something like this happens."Copyright © 2023 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.
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