AOL
A pensioner died trying to protect his friend’s dog from the wildfires in Hawaii, it has emerged, as the death toll climbs and the search for bodies continues.
At least 93 people have died in the wildfires that razed the historic town of Lahaina on the island of Maui, a figure expected to riseas sniffer dogs widen their search.
The fires, already the deadliest in the US for over a century, has destroyed more than 2,000 buildings, most of them residential, and the town’s heritage museum.
Franklin Trejos, 68, initially stayed behind to help others and save the house of his friend Geoff Bogar, a retired fire captain.
As the flames moved closer on Tuesday afternoon, the day the wildfires started, Trejos and Bogar decided they had to flee, each escaping to his own car.
Mr Bogar, Trejos’s friend of 35 years, had trouble starting his vehicle and was forced to break a window and get out. He then crawled on the ground until a police patrol found him and took him to hospital.
When Mr Bogar returned the next day he found his friend hadn’t been so lucky. There, in the backseat of the car, lay Mr Trejos on top of Mr Bogar’s beloved three-year-old golden retriever Sam, whom he had tried to protect…
