Catastrophic and deadly wildfires on Maui in Hawaii, have destroyed most of the historic town of Lahaina, a town that Nicole Modell from Camarillo knows well. She celebrated her birthday with a family dinner at a restaurant on Front Street, in the town she calls “charming”, only two weeks ago.
"We've been coming for years, it's just as much a home to me here as my place in Camarillo. This place has my heart," she told KCLU on Monday.
Front Street is now destroyed, along with over 2000 other buildings in the town. Modell was staying about 4 miles north, along with her parents, her boyfriend and his parents for what should have been a memorable vacation. Instead, it’s a trip that Modell will never forget – but not for good reasons.
'"Previous day we didn't have any power due to the winds. The sky in the distance we saw things were starting to get smoky looking, we just saw it [the fire] visually."
She says there was no warning about the fast-moving wildfires.
"No, there was no warning at all. Nobody notified us of anything. That's how we knew there was a fire - just by seeing it," she said.
She said see saw the "horrific" orange glow in the distance but "nobody knew anything."
She’s still in Maui when we speak but is soon to fly home to Ventura County…leaving behind a rising death toll and a slice of paradise that is no longer recognizable.
"I'm still in shock, it still hasn't sunken in," she told KCLU.
Modell said she was moved by hearing music playing in the store when she went shopping after reaching safety.
"John Denver, I'm leaving on a Jet Plane... and I don't know when I'll be back again," she recited.
"Even now saying that, I'm getting teary-eyed. I don't know when I'll come back and I don't know what it will look like when I come back," she said.
"I'm OK, and our property is OK but so many people aren't and won't be for who knows how many months or years," said Modell. "It's just so awful and devastating."
