Jubee Bedoya spent hours in the Pacific Ocean clutching to a piece of plywood with one arm while holding a stranger's 2-year-old child as fire overtook the town of Lahaina.
"As we were in the water, we heard people screaming," Bedoya tells TODAY's Miguel Almaguer. "It’s like someone just dropped a bomb."
His story is just one from those who sought refuge in the ocean while fleeing the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history as the death toll climbs to 96.
Nineteen-year-old Noah Tompkinson and his 13-year-old brother also escaped the flames from the water alongside their mother. They tell TODAY that the brothers huddled around their mother to keep her warm as the hours went on.
“We didn’t save her," the elder brother said. "She also saved us.”
As walls of flames surrounded the Maui home of Mike Cicchino and his wife Andreza, the couple had to run for their lives and dive into the Pacific Ocean to escape the flames.
The couple described their feelings of disorientation as they dived into the ocean to save themselves from the flames that bore down on their home.
"The current was pulling us out," Mike Cicchino told NBC News correspondent Dana Griffin on TODAY. "You can’t see anything. At one point, we have fire on us, and we don’t know where land is."
After making it back to the beach, the couple desperately searched for their missing dogs while hearing the cries of their neighbors.
"It was like every 10 feet was, 'Help, help!'" Cicchino said. "And I helped as many people as I possibly could. But I couldn’t go any further because there’s too much heat."
Sam Younger and his wife Josie fled their beachfront home with just seconds to spare as the inferno turned much of their neighborhood on Lahaina's historic Front Street into ash.
"It was devastating," Sam Younger said. "Unspeakable, unthinkable, really just seeing all of what was going on the destruction all the people that were down that way."
Surf instructor Lisa Panis said she worked to help others as her street burned.
"Me and my friend ran in to a burning building," she said. "We rescued two kids. Rescued two kids, got them safe to their mom."
Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said the death toll may continue to rise because rescuers have only been able to search the exterior of buildings that were burned, not the interior.
"We’ve seen devastation, destruction, immeasurable loss," Bissen told Savannah Guthrie on TODAY Aug. 11. "Loss of life, loss of historical places and properties, businesses. But I’m confident as a community coming together, we will rebuild. And that is certainly our intention."
Bissen said crews are working to reunite families, get supplies to those in need and notify loved ones about any deaths.
The mayor was asked about reports of residents saying they did not hear any sirens or have any advance warning that the fire was bearing down on their neighborhoods.
"I think this was an impossible situation," he said. "The winds that hit us on that side of the island and in fact on other parts of the island, in some areas the gusts were up to 80 miles per hour. Everything happened so quickly.
"I can’t comment on whether or not the sirens sounded or not, but I know that the fires came up so quickly and they spread so fast," he continued.
Churches and shelters are offering the displaced residents food, clothes and a place to sleep as emergency personnel work to restore power and running water to the west side of the island.
"Lahaina will bounce back," Younger said. "It's going to take a lot of work, and a lot of years and a lot of manpower. But I have no doubt it will bounce back."
