The Maui wildfires and particularly the Lahaina wildfire were terrible tragedies. Everyone wants to blame the other for causing the disaster.

However, wildfires in Lahaina aren’t new. It happens all the time. The only difference this time is that it spread so rapidly and destroyed the town of Lahaina. But was it Hawaiian Electric’s fault? People need to understand that fires can be started many ways.

A simple unextinguished cigarette butt could start a fire. But what is fueling the fire? The dry brush that is everywhere, but also along the roadways. Every time there is a wildfire, does anyone do anything about the dry brush? We can pour millions of gallons of water to douse the wildfire, but we cannot provide irrigation to control the dry brush?

We’re going to rebuild Lahaina and other parts of Maui. However, we’ll allow the threat of another wildfire to exist. It’s not how the fire started; the effort must be how not to have future wildfires start. You need to remove the fuel.

Clifford Murakami

Kailua

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