Wildfires remain critical threat across the state

Wildfires remain a threat despite recent record rainfall that drenched parts of Hawaii, state and weather officials warned Monday.

“Like all western states, Hawaii no longer has a summer fire season. Driven by our changing, warming climate, our fire season now starts in January and ends in December,” said fire protection forester Michael Walker of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife at a news conference.

Firefighters across the islands have already responded to dozens of roadside brush fires in the first half of the year, and state Forestry and Wildlife crews helped county firefighters to extinguish a 200-acre wildland fire on Maui in January and assisted with a 200-acre fire on Hawaii island in February.

In June on Kauai a massive wildland fire on fallow agricultural lands above Waimea and Kekaha scorched 2,100 acres. Walker noted that brush fires had occurred in the same area in May, in May 2017 and in the summer of 2012.

“This fire demonstrates that Hawaii not only has a fire problem, we have a fuels problem,” he said.

Much of the land in Hawaii once used for sugar cane or pineapple production in the 1960s through the 1990s went fallow and is now covered with non-­native grasses, making those areas prone to wildland fires.

“If we don’t manage these fuels, our problem with fire will continue to worsen,” Walker said.

Derek Wroe, National Weather Service meteorologist, said although there was record rainfall over the western end of the state in June, the eastern end — particularly large portions of Maui and Hawaii island — remain under “extreme to severe drought.”

The summer months bring the hottest and driest conditions of the year, primarily in the islands’ leeward areas.

In August wildfires in Makaha and Waianae valleys burned approximately 8,000 acres. The massive fires threatened homes and prompted school closures and evacuations.

According to Clay Trauernicht, wildland fire specialist of the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources’ Cooperative Extension, approximately 1 million acres of grasslands statewide are susceptible to fluctuations of rainfall and drought.

When grasslands sprout after heavy rain, there is a high risk of wildland fires during drought conditions with the accumulation of fuels. Guinea grass, for instance, can grow up to six inches in a day in optimal conditions.

Approximately 75% of wildfires in Hawaii are accidental and therefore preventable, said Elizabeth Pickett, executive director of the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization.

“When it comes to reducing wildfire danger and damage, it’s the action that we take ahead of time before the first spark that actually is the most important of all, and it takes all of us,” she said.

Hawaii Wildfire Management offered the following tips to prevent wildland fires:

>> Do not park vehicles on dry grass.

>> Fully extinguish barbecue and campfires prior to leaving the grounds.

>> Keep grass short.

>> Discard dry vegetation.

>> Clear debris from lanai, porch, side wall and rain gutters.

For more information, visit hawaiiwildfire.org.