State health officials say that cleanup of toxic materials resulting from the fire in Lāhainā will likely take weeks, if not months.
"It's going to be a long time," said State toxicologist Diana Felton.
Over the next two weeks, Felton said teams led by the Environmental Protection Agency will work to remove obvious hazards, like propane tanks, from the area.
But the majority of ash and debris will take much longer to clear, and Felton warned that it may contain several toxic contaminants.
"These areas should be approached very carefully, very cautiously," Felton said.
There is a high chance that many of Lāhainā's older buildings had lead paint or asbestos, since the town was built well before the 1970s.
These materials are likely still present in debris and could come in contact with skin or accidentally be inhaled. Arsenic, which was used in the 20th century as a herbicide on sugar and pineapple plantations, is another concern.
"You don't really want to be exposed to any of this stuff," Felton said.
Maui County also issued a water advisory for upper Kula and Lāhainā on Friday. Officials warn that it's currently unsafe to consume tap water in areas affected by the wildfire, even if the water has been boiled.
Felton said that in the long-term, the water will be useable, but "in the short term, we just need more information." The state Department of Health Safe Drinking Water Branch said they are planning to conduct drinking water testing throughout West Maui.
"Strange things can happen to the water" after a disaster, Felton said. "I'm optimistic that the water system will be able to be restored, but until we have a better sense of how much, if any, contamination is present, we won't have a timeframe on that."
The DOH is taking many of its cues on cleanup from federal agencies like the EPA and the Centers for Disease Control, as well as officials of other communities that have dealt with wildfires.
Katie Arrington knows firsthand how difficult the cleanup process can be. She's the assistant recovery manager for the Recovery and Resiliency Division of Boulder County in Colorado.
In late 2021, the Marshall Fire burned over a thousand homes and businesses in Boulder County in less than 48 hours. It was one of the most destructive fires in Colorado's history.
Arrington said it could take her community up to seven years to rebuild.
Boulder health officials strongly advised against residents returning to the area in the immediate aftermath of the Marshall Fire, but Arrington said she understands why people want to return to their homes as soon as possible, even if little remains.
"Finding something they thought they lost forever, we found after the Marshall Fire that brought a lot of peace," Arrington said.
Maui County opened access to certain parts of Lāhainā on Friday for West Maui residents. It was the first chance many evacuees had to return to the area since the fires broke out earlier this week.
But the Maui Police Department shut down access just a few hours later after reports of people entering the barricaded section of the destroyed Lāhainā town.
"This zone has been declared by Mayor Bissen as an authorized personnel area only, and those caught within this zone will be escorted out and may be arrested," MPD said in a statement. "This area is an active police scene, and we need to preserve the dignity of lives lost and respect their surviving family."
"There's just a lot of dangerous stuff," Arrington said, including unstable structures and ash pockets in burned homes. But she acknowledged that it will be hard to keep people away, even if conditions are deemed unsafe. "Grassroots efforts are gonna do what they need to do to make people feel whole again. So just being as safe as you can is the best I can offer."
"I completely understand people's need and desire to go and check on their homes, particularly if the status of their home or their business is unknown," Felton agreed. "I think that is a lot of the drive of why the area was opened up so abruptly. People are just... they need to know."
In order to stay safe, Felton encouraged people to cover up as much as possible — with closed-toe shoes, pants, long-sleeve shirts, gloves, and goggles if possible. To avoid respiratory hazards, she said to wear a well-fitting mask. An N95 is best, but a surgical mask will also provide protection from ash.
However, those items may be hard to come by for evacuees, especially those who had to quickly flee or lost their homes in the fire.
"At this point, full extensive gear like this is not currently being provided [in shelters]," Felton said, though she did add that some surgical masks were being distributed to help curb the spread of COVID-19.
HPR reached out to the American Red Cross, which is running many of the shelters on Maui, to see if PPE was being provided or if there were plans to provide PPE to evacuees in the future. As of Saturday afternoon, they had not responded.
"I think it is on the long-term agenda to be able to help support people in that way, but there are more immediate needs in the current moment," Felton said.
On Saturday, Maui County re-opened access to west Maui for residents, this time routing people through Waiheʻe.
In a statement issued Saturday afternoon, officials reiterated that the Lahaina wildfire disaster area is closed: "People are required to stay out of the area, where search-and-rescue operations are underway, and there are possible hazards including toxic particles from smoldering areas."
Anyone entering the disaster area is subject to a misdemeanor crime punishable by up to one year in jail and a $2,000 fine.
"We don't need any more injuries or illness,” Felton said, “than have already occurred from this horrible event."
Read the state Department of Health’s full advisory here.
