One local San Diego restaurant owner lost his Lahaina beach cafe in the Maui wildfires. “It’s tragic and it's heart-wrenching, you know, that business was personal to me more than any of them,” restaurateur John Ealy said.
Then, he started to see smoke in the distance, and a lot of it.
“We were kind of like no way,” Ealy told NBC 7 he has experienced fires in Maui before, but said they would usually stay in the mountain and open brush areas. “It had never come into town.”“All of the sudden like 80 texts came through and they’re all like, ‘are you ok, are you ok,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m ok, power’s out,” Ealy said.“I had no idea and she’s like, ‘you know that Lahaina’s literally on fire?’ and I’m like, ‘what do you mean? We’re like a mile and a half away,” he said.
They are safe, but many of them lost their homes, so Ealy organized an online fundraiser to help them recover. He also said that on Friday, Aug. 20 at the three restaurants he owns in California, including Harley Gray in San Diego, Zelda’s on the Beach in Capitola and Ideal Bar & Grill in Santa Cruz, part of the proceeds will go to the Lahaina employee’s fund.
“Mine’s a business and it’s tragic and it’s heart-wrenching, you know, but it’s a business and I can put that there and just focus on the people that lost their homes,” he said. As for if Betty's will ever make a comeback, Ealy said,"I mean Betty's could open anywhere. We could do Betty's Solana Beach, Betty's Cardiff."
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