It has been a devastating week for farmers in Ka'u on the Big Island.  Some 5,200 acres have been torched, fanning out on both sides of Highway 11 around Pahala.

"I was hoping that maybe the trunk was still good and maybe it will survive, but it doesn't look like it would," said macadamia nut farmer Randy Cabral.

Cabral says he's dedicated to his crops, but he's had a rough go of it.

This hit was not even the worst of it.  The flooding that devastated Hilo in November of 2000 hit Pahala too.

At the floor of the burned out mac nut fields is a river of rocks and boulders.  But, his focus on this day is the trees.

"You can imagine the flames moving with this kind of wind," said Cabral at the trees' edge. "You could just see the flames leaping along the way 30, 40 feet, 50 feet. It was just jumping."

He said on the day the fire started, the winds were blowing up to 60 mph, and residents have been dealing with strong gusts ever since.

His home several miles away is now covered with dust and ash.

Taking a look at a crusted black puddle on the ground, you can see where the fire melted thick black piping used for irrigation.

Despite a major setback, Randy said he's lucky.

Two months from now, those mac nut trees would have been at peak production and his $400,000 irrigation project, just underway, would have been complete.

"You ever say to yourself, that's it?" asked KITV4 reporter Lara Yamada.