CARMICHAEL, Calif. — A Carmichael native who calls both Hawaii and California home is feeling a double dose of anguish due to wildfires.
"Happen to wake up last night, around 11:30 p.m. and checked my phone and had messages and missed calls from people in Maui. And saying this is really bad. The whole city is on fire," said Adam Marszal.
Marszal was born and raised in Carmichael, but he also calls Lahaina home thanks to his family's gas station business.
"I grew up going to Hawaii and going into Lahaina and created a lot of memories going up and down Front Street," said Marszal.
Sadly, the fires are destroying and threatening what his family and so many others have spent generations building.
"One of our gas stations was there in Lahaina, called the Lahaina Texaco. It was right on the highway at Papa Lau Street. And from what I've seen from pictures, it's completely burned to the ground," said Marszal.
No one expected his mother's home, sitting right in the path of the fire to escape the flames. However, he saw a picture online of his mother's neighborhood, with her home one of the only few untouched.
"It was still standing and a couple houses next to it. We're still standing, but all behind it, just complete desolation every house destroyed. It's unbelievable," said Marszal.
Thankfully, his family is safe, but the fire have turned deadly.
Now, the focus for his family turns to caring for their employees in Hawaii.
"It will be rebuilt again someday, but it'll never be what it was. And what my memory of it was," said Marszal.
He plans to fly to the area as soon as possible.
"It's just it's truly a special place in this country on this earth, and I know that it will be rebuilt,' he said.
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