Lahaina survivors open 'Merienda,' to pursue new beginnings on O'ahu

HONOLULU (KHON2) -- Motley Adovas and Daniel Soriano are chefs and co-owners of "Merienda," a Filipino fusion food truck they recently opened in Pearl City.

"Cooking in general is helping me move forward," Adovas explained. "I'm seeing a brighter future, and I love cooking."

Recapturing that joy and hope hasn't been easy after losing almost everything they own.

Both Adovas and Soriano's homes were burned to the ground in the Lahaina wildfires in August 2023.

"It happened so fast that we only had a matter of time to take some of our important documents and two of our cars," Adovas explained. "It was probably the scariest thing that had happened in my entire life."

The weeks following the blaze were surreal.