The Kīhei Charter School community is on fire watch after flames ripped across the Kīhei area, Lāhainā and Upcountry Maui last week.
The public school is located on Lipoa Parkway in a cul-de-sac — on the mauka side of northern Kīhei. The area is known for its dry foliage.
Faculty and administrators are on high alert while the public school and adjacent neighborhoods remain intact. The fire near Kīhei is 100% contained as of Monday, but fire personnel remain vigilant in case of flare ups.
Gene Zarro, vice chair of the school's governing board, said he's on campus from the afternoon until midnight, watching for potential wildfires. Some staff are up as early as 4 a.m., he added.
"Who knows what can happen?" Zarro said. "If the wind breaks, the fire sparks again and heads in our direction, maybe we call the IT guy and have him shut down all the servers. Things like that we could do to protect ourselves."
Zarro said the charter school and other buildings near the open fields are most at risk for wildfires.
He said this year's fire was about an eighth of a mile from the school, but others have come even closer in past years.
"Last time we had a big fire here, the fire department was fighting the fire from our driveway," Zarro said. "Fortunately, the contractors were able to cut fire breaks, and the firemen were doing their heroic work. We were never as close as we've been in the past."
A 2019 brush fire scorched 270 acres in Kīhei, burning an area mauka of Lipoa Parkway and Maui Brewing Co., according to The Maui News.
Mike Moran, president of the nonprofit Kīhei Community Association, said facilities and homes near the mauka side are the most prone to fires.
"Our community is constantly in fear of fire season," he said. "It could happen."
Moran said the last community plan to address infrastructure was in 1998, but those efforts fell through. He noted that the infrastructure in the area needs to be improved to deal with wildfires.
He said the issue is that some neighborhoods only have one way in and one way out.
"That would be going into the trade winds, where if you had a fire, people would have nowhere to go," Moran said. "We're looking at those poor souls in Lāhainā when the fire burned right down to the ocean."
The wildfires that erupted last Tuesday destroyed the historic town of Lāhainā, and sirens didn't go off during that time. The town has two one-way roads.
"So we're hoping now that with all these existing plans for fire prevention that have been created but never implemented that this will force the government to start implementing all these actions or any of these plans."
Zarro said the community will keep an eye out as students return to campus this week.
