Maui wildfire survivor: Maryland woman shares story of how she escaped deadly blaze

BALTIMORE - More than 100 people died in a massive wildfire on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Hundreds more remain missing.

Annelise Cochran, from Bethesda, Maryland, escaped the deadly blaze.

She told WJZ that she was saved by jumping into the cold ocean waters.

Cochran said she was burned and nearly drowned trying to elude this historic wildfire that lit up and blew through the island's town of Lahaina.

The marine mammal educator shared her story of survival with WJZ in hopes that others will lend a hand to help those devasted by the tragedy.

"And I think most of the night, I just told myself that I was going to survive after I collapsed on the ground not being able to breathe, quite literally gasping for air," Cochran said. "I would close my eyes and I would see blue lights dancing in my field of vision. I knew I was losing time."

Cochran said she was one of about 40 people rescued after taking shelter with a neighbor at the water's edge in Lahaina.

She said the eight-hour nightmare, included being burned by windblown embers, breathing potentially lethal smoke and enduring water temperatures cool enough to kill over time.  

"After about five hours of being soaking wet in the dark, I started to experience hypothermia or symptoms of it," Cochran said.

That prompted Cochran to go back toward the fire at times where she was burned by falling embers.

She said the ocean waters saved her life.

"Sometimes, I would feel my head kind of dip down and I would touch my lips to the surface of the ocean," Cochran said. "You're trying to breathe very close to the water to try to get as much fresh air as we could. And it was like the feeling of the waves against my face. That was sort of what made me come to again."

As Cochran fought to survive, she texted her mother saying she was alive, that things were still really bad, and that she loved her so much.

Cochran now has scrapes and burns as a reminder of her story of survival.

Currently, she is staying at a shelter in Maui.

Her employer, Pacific Whale Foundation, lost a large boat but now uses donations to help others.

"We have a fleet of boats that we typically use for whale watching and snorkeling," Cochran said. "But we've been using these boats as a way to get more easily and quickly to Lahaina with big loads of supplies." 

While Cochran will likely return to Maryland to reunite with her family, she wants people to pitch in whatever they can to the Red Cross and other verifiable organizations in the days, months, and likely, years of recovery on the Pacific island.