Brit hols couple: Our nightmare in Hawaii killer fires

Family cowered from flames

- CHRISTOPHER BUCKTIN

BRITISH holidaymakers in Hawaii have told how they watched terrified from their hotel room as killer wildfires swept perilously close.

Sarah and Andy Whitehouse were on Maui as a 25th anniversary treat with their two teenage daughters when flames fanned by Hurricane Dora swept across the island.

As the blaze came with in a mile of them the family could hear explosions in the near distance and they prepared to jump into the Pacific Ocean to escape it, as many others did.

Luckily, the wind swept the flames in another direction and they avoided the fire in which at least 55 people were killed and over 1,000 remain missing.

Sarah said: "The only reason we're still here is because of the wind direction. We'll never forget it."