In the wake of the deadly Maui wildfires and the blazes that damaged properties in West Hawaii, a Waimea-based nonprofit organization is conducting community wildfire risk assessments using home assessors-in-training.
According to the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, these are not your typical home assessors who determine the value of property. They’re specially trained to conduct free reviews of how safe a property and its structures are from the threat of wildfires.
Those assessments are occurring in communities that are designated “Firewise communities” by Firewise USA, a nationwide program of the National Fire Protection Association, with communities in 37 states.
There currently are 15 Firewise communities in Hawaii, said Nani Barretto, HWMO co-executive director.
The Firewise communities in Hawaii County are: Kailapa, Waimea; Kanehoa Subdivision, Waimea; Kohala By The Sea, Waimea; Kohala Waterfront, Waimea; Puuanahulu; Puukapu Homestead, Waimea; Waialea, Waimea; Waikii Ranch, Waimea; and Waikoloa Village.
In addition, there are three communities going through what Barretto called the “recognition process” of becoming Firewise.
Hawaii Fire Department Chief Kazuo Todd said Firewise communities “gather together and self-enforce rules.”
“There’s never enough fire inspectors to literally go house-to-house, and there’s private property rules and stuff like that. That’s why Firewise exists and why HWMO heads that up,” Todd said.
Part of the assessor training is being conducted in the Firewise Puukapu Homestead community, where two homes burned down during the massive 2021 Mana Road wildfire which blackened 40,000 acres in late July and early August 2021 and forced the evacuation of Waikoloa Village.
That fire and the Leilani fire, which scorched 17,000 acres just south of Waikoloa last August, were fueled by invasive grasses, authorities said.
Mike Walker, the state protection forester for the Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife, said most of the wildfires in Hawaii are caused by “the WUI, the wildland/urban interface.”
“Nearly 99% of these ignitions are human-caused — be it from a welder, parking a car over dry grass, or an intentional ignition like arson,” Walker said. “When we want to protect our forests from fire, we also really want to protect our communities from fires, too.”
Todd said the Firewise program and its assessor training is “built around the concept of maintaining defensible space and cleaning out your gutters and eaves of leaves and stuff like that so fire can’t transition, if it’s nearby, to your house.
“The better houses are designed, and the better space is maintained around a home, the less likely we lose a structure to a fire.”
Todd called the conditions that caused the Mana Road fire and those that fueled the Maui fires that essentially destroyed Lahaina “a very similar situation.”
“I don’t want to take away from Maui. They’re in a tough time right now, and my heart goes out to them,” he said. “I feel for Lahaina and Chief (Bradford) Ventura and the Maui Fire Department. They lost all those homes in one night. If we had all the resources in the state in Lahaina, I don’t know if we could’ve stopped it, right?
“It is no joke what the wind-driven fire can do.”
Last week’s West Hawaii fires destroyed three warehouses at the Mauna Kea Resort and caused damage to homes at Mauna Kea and Kohala Ranch, although no residential properties were destroyed.
According to Todd, prior to the quick spread of the Mana fire, the National Weather Service had issued a red flag warning, meaning the convergence of dry conditions and high winds are creating an environment ripe for wildfires. A similar warning was issued last week prior to the Maui and West Hawaii fires.
“We were running into red flag, and we had a fire start. We had a dozer line; we actually had it contained. And we’re telling our battalion chief on the scene, ‘You’ve got to make sure that thing is dead,’” Todd said. “Because tomorrow, the winds are coming. We’re seeing 50 mph winds coming in. And Maui was doing 70, right? And we’re, like, ‘If you do not have that thing dead by sunrise tomorrow, it’ll blow past (containment). A 50 mile-an-hour wind is going to throw ember for miles.
“We were at, like, 4,000 acres burned, and three hours later, we were at 17,000 acres burning. And by the evening, we were at 30,000 acres.
“So Mana Road is exactly the same kind of fire.”
Over the next two-years, the assessors will concentrate their efforts in designated Firewise communities. The U.S. Forest Service and Coalitions and Collaboratives Inc. are providing information and technical and financial support to community ambassadors to conduct 390 individual home assessments.
“After that, if there is demand, and we have all these assessors willing to continue, we will open it up to residents in surrounding communities. Sometimes, that’s the only inspiration required for a resident to hook up with another neighbor and say, ‘Hey, there’s a program called Firewise,’” Barretto said.
For more information on the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, the Firewise program and wildfire home assessments, visit the HWMO website at hawaiiwildfire.org.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
