As the massive losses and trauma of the 2023 West Maui fires continue to send shock waves through the state, the disaster has also created a sharp awareness — and healthy fear — of fire’s potential danger to Hawaii’s communities.
Around the state, akamai residents are taking action, productively banding together to make their own neighborhoods more safe. Cooperation is key — and each new initiative is encouraging.
In East Honolulu, neighborhoods have banded together for their own self-interest, and this year worked with the nonprofit Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization (HWMO) to create the East Honolulu Community Wildfire Protection Plan. These wildfire protection plans, customized to a community’s risk profile, identify fire risks and prioritize actions to mitigate them.
HWMO looms large as a presence in community fire-safe efforts. It began working with Livable Hawaii Kai Hui in 2017, after the Kamilo Nui fires, establishing Oahu’s first “Firewise” community. To earn and keep a Firewise designation, communities must commit to establish and maintain programs that reduce fire risk, such as firebreaks and clearing dry vegetation. Additional East Honolulu communities and Lanikai are in the process of becoming Firewise-recognized.
The Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) program, which is coordinated by HWMO in partnership with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, is a key method for communities to establish safety practices appropriate for conditions at their locations. HWMO is currently working on CWPPs with several communities on Hawaii island; planning in Upcountry Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Windward Oahu areas will follow.
The U.S. Forest Service provides grant funds for Hawaii communities to prepare CWPPs, and in May, U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono announced that Hawaii would receive more than $5.6 million to help at-risk communities create or update their plans.
Elizabeth Reilly, president of Livable Hawaii Kai, told the Star-Advertiser that CWPPs can jump-start community participation — and back up additional grant funding. One place to start: Communities must call for a renewal of state support for Firewise programs, reversing a lamentable failure to provide $1.5 million in hoped-for state grant-in-aid funding for Firewise programs last time around.
“It would be great if more neighborhoods would become designated Firewise communities,” Reilly said. “The only way to really get a handle on this is for the average resident to not be complacent.”
She’s right about that. If Hawaii wants to achieve a high degree of fire safety, community leadership and participation will be needed.
The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) has taken the initiative to begin a fire-safety campaign for its homestead communities, especially those built before current safety standards were established. DHHL sponsored a symposium for homesteaders statewide on Aug. 23, with discussion of protective measures and talks with fire survivors. DHHL also is developing a master plan detailing fire-safety measures across its holdings, says DHHL Director Kali Watson.
In Kula, after wind-driven wildfire burned 19 homes and over 1,000 acres on Aug. 8, 2023, many of the fire survivors became leaders in the Kula Community Watershed Alliance, taking action to restore damaged lands and to reduce fire risk in the future.
The group has launched two actions: the Kula Fire Restoration Project, “stabilizing and regenerating the disturbed soil, restoring and protecting site-appropriate native flora and fauna, and stewarding the long-term vitality of the lands”; and the Kula Fuels Reduction Project, converting lands overgrown with invasive species to native tree canopies, which naturally hold water and reduce fire risk.
Households in neighborhoods that have not yet pursued fire-safety efforts must now take inspiration from these actions, and call for localized CWPP and Firewise programs throughout Hawaii.
