As experts continue to monitor the toxins released into the air as a result of the Maui fires, Hawaiʻi leaders tell residents that there isn't any immediate danger.
On Wednesday Gov. Josh Green held a news conference with other local and federal leaders to provide updates to the Lāhainā recovery effort.
"So far, so good," he said. "If we ever see any concern, we'll immediately take action."
Recent test results from the state Department of Health found arsenic, lead and cobalt in the ash from the Kula fire, and results for Lāhainā are expected to be similar.
Since then there have been more calls to ensure that people in Lāhainā have better personal protective equipment. Some have said that people in Lāhainā, including relief workers not from Hawaiʻi.
There have also been more calls to delay this week's reopening of nearby schools. Lāhainā Intermediate, King Kamehameha III Elementary and Princess Nāhi‘ena‘ena Elementary reopened to students earlier this week.
Green said testing is taking place in the town and that the presence of heavy metals doesn’t worry him yet.
“We're going to keep testing perpetually. I will say this, that most of the concerns about heavy metals are through ingestion … which is why we usually worry more about around elementary schools, because our keiki, the young ones, play more in the dirt. They put more soil in their mouths,” Green said.
Bob Fenton, the incident commander for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the toxins found in the Kula ash are similar to those found in other wildfires.
“I don't want anyone to think that there's a significant difference than the fires in California, Colorado or Oregon … This is what we expected,” Fenton said.
“We unfortunately got very used to dealing with large residential and commercial areas that have been destroyed by fires. And unfortunately, we've gotten pretty good at how to deal with that safely, especially when you have the community around them.”
