Man who lost home in Maui fires struggling to leave island with his pets

MAUI, HI (KPTV) - Some of the people lucky enough to escape the flames in Maui did so with nothing. Now they’re trying to figure out what’s next, and when that also involves moving a pet the logistics get harder.

“We’ve lost our home and everything. We got out with the clothes on our back, our cat and our dog, the wife, me, and basically that’s all we have, you know,” Greg Lynch said.

SEE ALSO: ‘I felt overwhelmed’: Maui woman shares story of escaping flames

Lynch says the afternoon the fires broke out in Lahaina he was taking a nap.

“What woke me up was the explosions of people’s propane tanks blowing up,” he said.

He rushed outside and up the hill the see the wildfire moving toward town.

“By the time we packed a bag, the police were driving down the street with a loudspeaker saying evacuate immediately,” he said.

Lynch says he and his wife were only able to grab some important papers and their pets and left.

“As we were driving out, people were abandoning their cars and running down the street because it was going so fast,” he said. “I have a lifted truck and I rammed one car out of the way to make room for it. Then just off roaded – off the side of the road. It was literally, people were jumping in the bed of my truck running for their lives. It was apocalyptic. It was crazy.”

Lynch says they are now staying with whatever friend can host them for a night or two. They really want to go to another island but say that’s proving difficult.

“We’re just trying to get to another island where we have people, we have family, and it’s hard because airlines aren’t allowing people to bring their pets on. They’re saying the carriers are too big and we get a different carrier, it’s too small,” Lynch said.

He went to the Maui Humane Society shelter hoping they could provide what he needs for his dog, so the family can stay together and try to move on from this tragedy.

SEE ALSO: FOX 12′s Debra Gil reports from Maui: Volunteers search through Lahaina ashes for lost, injured pets

“It’s been go, go, go. Just trying to figure out what the next move is. It’s hard to process. It’s a lot,” Lynch said. “I don’t ever want to have to go through what we went through. It was hard. Yeah, it was hard.”

Lynch told FOX 12 that he hopes now with the new carrier that he will be able to fly to a different island in the next couple of days.

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