About a quarter of Hawaiʻi is covered in nonnative grasses. Under dry conditions, these grasses can serve as fuel for wildfires, allowing blazes to quickly consume large swaths of land.
Policymakers and land managers are grappling with how best to manage these fire-prone terrains. But hazardous fuels aren’t just a problem in Hawaiʻi’s fallow agricultural lands — they may also be hiding in plain sight in your backyard.
Elizabeth Pickett, a co-director of the Hawaiʻi Wildfire Management Organization, pointed out that only about 200 yards of brush burned near Lahaina before the fire became an urban conflagration.
"That is a structure to structure, yard to yard, tree to bush to car to house kind of spread," she said.
When a brush fire breaks out in grasslands near urban areas, high winds can easily carry embers from the fire into the built environment. If those embers ignite vegetation surrounding homes or the homes themselves, the fire can quickly grow and spread out of control.
"The built environment matters. We need codes. We need standards. We need people to take action around their homes and yards," Pickett said.
This lesson was hammered home for Kauaʻi residents and officials when, less than a year after Lahaina was destroyed, a brush fire ignited on the outskirts of Kaumakani, a former plantation camp owned by Gay & Robinson.
Kaumakani was spared, but Kauaʻi Planning Director Kaʻaina Hull said that close call was a turning point.
"We really began working with Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization to understand what the built environment policies can and should be in addressing wildfire resiliency," Hull said.
Last fall, Kauaʻi County enacted a new Wildland Urban Interface ordinance that covers five of its historic plantation camps, including Kaumakani.
It mandates that any new homes built in the communities have updates like fire-resistant roofs, which are made to withstand showers of embers from a nearby fire.
The ordinance also lays out requirements for addressing hazardous vegetation and debris within the communities.
Gay & Robinson has begun conducting home assessments to look for fire risks like dry vegetation against structures or exposed vents through which embers could enter homes.
"Our goal is to do every house so that our tenants get specific and realistic cleanup recommendations," said Sherri Waialeale, the housing coordinator for Gay & Robinson.
In March, Gay & Robinson held its first annual community wildfire preparedness meeting, another one of the requirements of the new ordinance.
Waialeale estimates that almost one person from every household attended the meeting.
"After the Kaumakani fire, it's on the minds of our of our residents, and they are used to community meetings from sugar days," she said.
"The goal is really simple, right? We prepare as a way of caring for each other."
