The day the wildfires began their gruesome march upon Lahaina, 18-year-old Joa Navarro was trapped in his car at a standstill on gridlocked Wainee Street, his gas tank and his options to escape to safety nearing zero.

Then through the chaos and smoke, the Lahaina native glimpsed an unexpected sight: His very favorite teacher from his days at Lahainaluna High School, Jackie Ellis, driving in a streak in the opposite direction.

From four years of classes with Ellis, a science teacher who also had been his close mentor, Navarro just knew in his gut: “She probably has an idea what she’s doing. She probably has a plan and everything.”

So he cranked his Honda Fit into a U-turn and sped to catch up to her car.

That faith Navarro placed in Ellis would turn out to save his life, as the two would eventually make a harrowing final drive together out of the burning town.

It’s one of the countless stories of split-second decisions leading to either life or death that are emerging in the wake of the West Maui disaster, the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.

“It was a miracle that I saw her that day because otherwise I don’t know what would have happened,” Navarro said. “Who knows? Maybe I would have turned around too late or gotten stuck in traffic … or maybe I would be in the water with all those other people …”

Ellis, 33, had been eyeing the fires all that day on Aug. 8 as they menaced the hill above the Lahaina townhouse she shares with two roommates. But there were no emergency sirens, no text warnings since cellular service was down. Ellis said they did not hear any first responders make announcements in the neighborhood, and no one knocked on the door to say they should evacuate.

As she kept an anxious watch out the back window on the flames, she packed essentials for her two miniature Australian shepherd dogs and for herself — including her Lahainaluna polo shirts and her school keys, in case, she thought, she somehow might have to teach again soon.

By around 4 p.m., “We just kind of saw all the smoke getting closer and closer,” Ellis said. She and her roommates took separate cars, and she piled her dogs and supplies into her Honda Insight. “Once there was just black smoke like billowing through our neighborhood, I just was like, I can’t be here. Even if it’s just smoke, we shouldn’t be here. We gotta go.”

Meanwhile Navarro, whose family home is in Kahana, had been working that afternoon at his job at a sailboat charter company, but the gusty winds from the passing Hurricane Dora canceled the afternoon’s rides. The fires still seemed a distant concern when Navarro decided to wait and conserve what little fuel he had in his tank, as nearby gas stations were disabled without power.

He took a nap in his car in the parking structure of an outlet mall. He woke about an hour later, at a little after 4 p.m., confused by the sirens of first responders and stench of smoke.

Navarro started driving and quickly got mired in unmoving traffic pointed north, and that was when he spotted Ellis speeding past, going the other way. Ellis had also just tried unsuccessfully to head north, tried to use Front Street, and was only smacking into traffic jams before she desperately opted to try a different way.

“You just started to feel trapped,” Ellis said. “All you saw was smoke, the embers. Like, I don’t know where it (the fire) is. … The smoke is piling in behind you and covering the sun. But you can’t physically move forward no matter how hard you willed it. And so my fight-or-flight really kicked in, and mine was, fly! Like, get out of here!”

Now she was streaking along Wainee Street. Navarro caught up to Ellis at an intersection and they spotted each other. Ellis started to roll down the window but had to put it back up immediately because of the choking smoke, but Navarro managed to signal to her that he was out of gas. They drove their cars to King Kamehameha III Elementary School on Front Street, where Navarro parked his car and jumped in with Ellis.

Now fearful of getting overtaken by the black smoke she could see close behind in her rearview mirror, Ellis headed the “wrong” way on some roadways to eventually get them out of Lahaina.

Navarro, Ellis said, was “much more calm than I was. Maybe that’s just the bliss of being a teenage boy, but he was like, No, it’s OK. It’s OK. And I was like, this smoke is right behind us. … He kind of kept me calm in the way that an 18 year old shouldn’t have to do for an adult. So I always felt a little bad about that.

“But it was very helpful to have him there to keep my brain focused,” Ellis continued. “It kind of helped me like make decisions better because I had someone else to look out for.” She drove Navarro to a friend’s house in Launiupoko before seeking shelter with friends of her own.

But Navarro believes Ellis underestimates how confidently and carefully she delivered both of them from peril. He said such care is typical for Ellis, who at the school is known for providing advice, giving students rides to sports practices, and driving kids who didn’t qualify for graduation to their summer makeup classes. “She goes above and beyond for her students,” he said.

Ellis is staying at a hotel for now and is awaiting clearances to return to her home, which she’s been told is uninhabitable with fire damage, no power and no drinkable water. Yet she has no plans to leave the island or her school.

“What’s going to be best for my heart is helping my community and being there for my students,” she said. “They’ve lost enough already, and not like I’m like a huge pillar in their life, but I’m something that’s consistent, you know, and I want to be that for them, and I want to help this town that I just love.”

Navarro’s car, as it turned out, survived the fires with only melted plastic license plate holders, even though it was parked at the one public school that was incinerated to blackened ruins in the fires.

He’s now in Salt Lake City, preparing to start his freshman year at the University of Utah on Monday. He said by phone that it was wrenching to so quickly leave his island home with its fresh wounds. He and a friend got matching tattoos done in Kihei before flying out. Across his bicep reads, “Lahaina Strong.”

“We just love this town so much and it means so much to us. Just having to go through this devastation is crazy. So it’s always gonna stay with us forever,” he said.

Ellis and Navarro both say they feel grateful that their immediate loved ones are safe.

But Ellis said the ordeal has changed her, as it has changed everyone in this tightly woven community. As she has run into her former students and been reunited with friends in recent days, “I think I’ve said, ‘I love you,’ more in this last week than I’ve said in … ever,” Ellis said. “To all of them, to all of my students, to everyone I’ve talked to, it’s never felt so amazing to just hug people you know, and to love.”

Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify that the sirens Joa Navarro heard were from first responders’ vehicles.