"There's a lot of us who have ties to people who directly lost everything, lost family members," says former Miss Hawaii Kiana Yamat. "I'm just grateful that my family are OK."
Miss Hawaii USA 2022 is speaking about the devastating fires in Maui after seeing her hometown decimated in the blaze.
Miss Hawaii Kiana Yamat posted heartbreaking video that shows Lahaina, normally a luscious paradise, burned to the ground.
"It's really hard to see," Yamat tells Inside Edition.
At the same time Yamat considers herself lucky as compared to others in her community.
"There's a lot of us who have ties to people who directly lost everything, lost family members," says Yamat. "I'm just grateful that my family are OK."
Crystal Mitchell is among those whose home was completely destroyed in the fires.
It is the second time she had lost her home, with a wildfire previously destroying the family's dwelling back in 2018.
"I seriously thought there's no way my house would burn down two times in a row," Mitchell tells Inside Edition. "This time it happened so fast.:
Mitchell also says that the family's dogs are still missing.
She and her husband were on vacation in Lahaina when the crisis erupted, having flown in from their primary residence in Portland.
They managed to capture video of the chaos.
"Multiple explosions every, like, five minutes, five seconds," says Mitchell. "When I see those images now, I just feel so incredibly bad for the people who live there."
