It’s been about a week since teams with the Environmental Protection Agency began scouring the burnt out areas in Lāhainā Town for any hazardous material that still needs to be removed before families can be allowed back into the area.
Tom Dunkelman, the EPA's incident commander, said they have surveyed some 300 properties so far and interestingly what has emerged as different than any previous disaster site is dealing with lithium batteries and electric charging stations.
"We've been tasked by FEMA to remove hazardous materials from both residential and commercial structures. The types of materials that we remove are any of the typical chemicals that people might have in their home and their garage, under their kitchen sink," Dunkelman said.
He said the search is all done by hand, and that they remove the chemical containers from the burn parcels to a staging area outside of town.
Additionally, the other thing that he said they take great precautions about is that there may be cultural and historical items present on the property.
"We have cultural monitors who accompany our crews at all times, and they advise our crews of anything that they need to be aware of and stay away from," Dunkelman said.
"I can't stress that enough. That's an issue that we take very seriously all of our field crews before they go on the field receive a full day of cultural training," he said.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Sept. 6, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
