By Yiming Fu, Report for America corps member
The Fire Safety Research Institute released the second phase of their report on the Lahaina fires Friday, analyzing inadequate fire-readiness among county officials and residents before the August 8 fires and providing recommendations to make Hawaii more fire safe. The report came up with 84 findings and 140 recommendations.
Commissioned by the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office, the 518-page report on one of the deadliest wildfires in the last century discusses weather, fuel and infrastructure conditions, communications, incident management, evacuation efforts.
While the fires cannot be connected to one individual, organization, or event, the findings show a general lack of concern on Maui before August 8 despite warning signs in the weather forecast. The leaders of Maui’s Fire Department and Emergency Management Agency were both off island. There was no comprehensive plan or communication for the Maui Police Department’s wildfire response internally, with other state department’s or with the public.
“While much of Hawaiʻi, including Maui, has a relatively high risk of wildfire occurrence, it appears the perception of this risk—at the local, state, and national levels—is not always aligned with the actual, growing threat wildfires pose to the population and built environment,” the report said. “This gap between risk perception and reality seems to have contributed to a relative underinvestment in wildfire prevention, preparedness, and response capacity over the years.”
Part of this gap in risk perception is because fire Red Flag warnings are frequent and unspecific on Maui, and they often describe conditions that are similar to any summer’s day.
Further, the report says Lahaina’s layout, with narrow streets, winding dirt side roads blocked by gates, cars clogging the streets and multigenerational family homes that are often overcapacity delayed fire response.
The report recommends adjusting Red Flag criteria so it is more specific and actionable, including mandatory preparation and pre-positioning of supplies, equipment, vehicles, and personnel in high-risk areas and ensuring clear and open lines of communication within and among agencies. The report also recommends improving communication between Maui’s fire department and police department, both internally, with each other, and with the public.
Stricter occupancy limit requirements and adjusted zoning laws in Lahaina were also recommended.
“The governor has asked us, with FSRI’s assistance, to create a priority list of those recommendations,” Attorney General Anna E. Lopez said. “We have not done that yet, but the government basically said what are those top 10 most important recommendations that we will need to be aware of.”
The report also consists of primary source documents. Residents can look at the data themselves, including MPD Body Camera Footage, 9-1-1- Dispatch Audio Files, police and fire department vehicle location data, damage assessment assets, interviews with state and county officials, state, county and federal documents, as well as Maui emergency operations center notes including sign-in sheets and photographs.
Moving forward, Lopez said good governance is more important than liability. This means county, state and federal governments must act immediately on findings and recommendations.
Many places in Hawaii share similar risks to Lahaina and need to be careful about fire risks, Lopez said. This summer, there were 11 fires within a 10-day period in Maui and Kauai, some of which required evacuations and road closures. And climate change will make fire risks more frequent and more extreme, Lopez said.
The Fire Safety Research is expected to release a third report at an unannounced date focusing on systemic recommendations for the future.
“This administration is committed to ensuring that we don’t sit on these recommendations, that we learn from the past and that we move forward in a collaborative manner with county agencies, with other organizations and individuals, to ensure that we create a safer Hawaii,” Lopez said.
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