Most of the debris from the deadly 2023 wildfire in Lahaina, Maui, now resides in a permanent landfill, County of Maui officials announced on Saturday.
Officials have successfully transferred 64% of the total 400,000 tons of wildfire debris from a temporary debris storage site in Olowalu to a permanent disposal site at the Central Maui Landfill, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The site was chosen due to its far distance from any residential areas, schools, and drinking water sources.
The transfer operation started on June 16 and was estimated to take five months to complete.
“Our debris mission is going very smoothly, we appreciate all your support over the last two months,” Lt. Col. Adrian Biggerstaff recently said at a community meeting. “If you know someone hauling the debris, please thank them, give them a big mahalo because they’re doing amazing work for us and the community.”
The milestone was announced as County of Maui officials continue to encourage all survivors of the wildfire to connect with disaster case managers through state and/or local services.
Both the State of Hawaiʻi Disaster Case Management Program and the Hoʻōla iā Mauiakama Disaster Case Management Program recently expanded services for residents affected by the fire and reportedly work closely with each other to avoid service duplication, according to County of Maui Office of Recovery Administrator John Smith.
“DCMs help survivors develop individualized recovery plans and connect them with housing assistance, mental health services, transportation support, financial aid and more,” Smith said. “Whether through the state or a community-based program, DCMs serve as a consistent guide and advocate for wildfire survivors throughout their long-term recovery journey.”
~ By Chuck Sheley, retired smokejumper (Cave Junction 1959)
and current NSA Smokejumper Magazine editor
As part of our family drove along the Lahaina Bypass Road on July 5, 2023, I mentioned to my son that I had never seen things so dry in the 20+ years that we have been going to Maui. The bypass road ran by Lahaina a quarter mile or so up the hill from that historic town. The area between the town and the bypass was solid grass a couple of feet tall. With the continual downhill winds, I mentioned that this was a disaster waiting to happen. On August 8, it happened. Lahaina was a historic town and a major tourist attraction. Years of history there.
I’ve always wondered about the Hawaiian “Hang Loose” attitude, but their house, their attitude. You can substitute incompetence for Hang Loose in this fire. Let’s look at what happened at Lahaina, where over 100 people died. Could it have been prevented? Were fire and law enforcement caught off guard? Definitely not! They just ignored the inevitable.
Chuck Sheley
The Warning: In 2021 a Maui County commissioned report, County of Maui Report on Wildfire Prevention, was released. A summary: Wild/brush/ forest fires appear to be increasing; wild/brush/ forest fires present a growing threat to Maui County citizens; there are ongoing fire threats to Maui Island: grasses and combustible materials along road rights-of-way; low-hanging, failure, or shorting of above-ground powerlines.
The report included comments on Maui County’s Fire and Safety Response: “Prevention is given short shrift. There is no stated goal of fire prevention or any metric to assess success or improvement in prevention. There is much space devoted to preventing injuries and illness of employees and to preventing equipment failure, but nothing about what can and should be done to prevent fires.”
They were told wildfire is coming. However, they respond with employee concerns. How about the citizens? Sounds like an employee union response.
2014: Michael Walker, Hawaii’s Fire Protection Forester, urged state lawmakers to make a relatively meager financial commitment to boost wildfire preparedness: about $1.5 million. That money would have funded new firebreaks, livestock grazing, and water infrastructure for firefighting. The bill died in committee.
National Weather Service data shows that in the last 17 years, the NWS issued 65 red flag warnings or fire weather watches for the area, including Lahaina.
When the predicted happened: The New York Times published an excellent report, with video, on this disaster from start to finish. “A cascade of failures by officials left thousands trapped and largely fending for themselves.”
Conditions: The NWS forecasted hurricane-force gusts up to 76 mph, with winds accelerating down the slopes leading into Lahaina. Using the NYTimes as a source, we have the following timeline: Shortly after sunrise on August 8, a powerline snapped and started a fire. Firefighters responded and contained the fire. Crew left site at 2:18 p.m. and returned to station. A 911 call at 2:52 p.m. as fire started again. (Fire Dept. did not leave anyone on the fire and did not make sure it was out.) At 3:22 p.m. fire jumped Lahaina Bypass and at 3:51 p.m., a Lahaina resident texted, “We are trapped.” At 4:13 p.m. fire spread across total area. Emergency managers chose not to activate the siren system, fearing people would evacuate TOWARD the fire. (Evacuate uphill toward a fire pushed by 70 mph winds?) 4:16 p.m. officials issued an evacuation alert via cellphones. But by then, the fire had already burned through the evacuation zone — 20 minutes earlier.
By 4:19 p.m. the fire had crossed Front Street. Roads were blocked. At 4:35 p.m. a caller to 911 said, “The roads are closed, I can’t turn out.” Roads blocked by downed powerlines, but Hawaii Electric said that the powerlines had been de-energized for hours. No one told the police who were blocking the escape routes. (No coordination between agencies.) 4:45 p.m. gridlock. Front Street blocked. Firefighters said they were losing water pressure. (Water and hoses against a wildfire pushed by 70 mph winds?) 6:00 p.m. Maui County mayor said he was “happy to report” the opening of the roads that had been blocked.
Honolulu Civil Beat: Maui County has known the town of Lahaina and its neighboring communities were the island’s most at risk for wildfires for years, with alarms being raised at least as far back as 2018. According to the county’s hazard mitigation plan developed in 2020, West Maui had a 90 percent chance of annual wildfires. Lahaina and the area around Maalaea were identified as being of highest concern.
Hawaii News Now: HNN obtained the report as part of an ongoing investigation of the county’s actions before, during, and after the wildfire that leveled Lahaina. Two months after the disaster, which claimed at least 99 lives with six others still unaccounted for, it’s clear that the wildfire threat was well-documented — the result of poor land management, inadequate planning, and drought. Escape routes blocked: As a reader, you can go to youtube and see videos taken by residents trying to escape Lahaina. Cars are backed up on Front Street, side by side and not moving. If the north end of Front Street had not been blocked by law enforcement, cars could have easily moved to safety in the large parking lots at Safeway — or driven farther north to safety. Some people drove around the blockage, but that didn’t help those trapped in line a mile back.
Associated Press (8/23/23): As flames tore through a West Maui neighborhood, car after car of fleeing residents headed for the only paved road out of town in a desperate race for safety. And car after car was turned back toward the rapidly spreading wildfire by a barricade blocking access to Highway 30. During a news conference on Tuesday, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said, “So the police were blocking roads, the exit, some of the exit roads out. And I’m assuming it’s because there’s been some downed powerlines or some downed trees.”
In another news report: This week, Maui’s police chief explained why barricades were set up. “Downed powerlines, which would kill you if you drove over them,” said MPD Chief John Pelletier. Danger from downed powerlines: We know or should know that downed powerlines present a danger. The rule: Do not exit the vehicle, stay inside. Other references: A powerline is the source (electricity), so the only place it will want to flow is to ground. A vehicle sits atop rubber tires which provide an insulator, so the occupant would be insulated. Since the vehicle does not provide a path to ground, driving over a powerline would not pose a risk for the insulated occupant. (Trained officers and the Fire Chief should know this.)
Common sense is uncommon: We have a situation where a town is engulfed by a 70 mph wind-driven fire. Exit roads are blocked, and cars are jammed and not moving. Even as a law enforcement official, if you did not know that a vehicle could drive safely over downed powerlines, could you see the alternative — being burned to death by a wildfire? People with off-road vehicles ignored the barriers and drove around them to safety. Was there any power in those lines?
“By 6:40 a.m., there was no power to Lahaina or West Maui, according to Darren Pai, a spokesman for Hawaiian Electric.” (Honolulu Civil Beat)
Bottom line: There was plenty of advance warning, some back as far as 2014, that this wildfire would happen. Whoever was at the top of the food chain should have put fire, law enforcement, medical, and Hawaiian Electric into a room and devised a plan to coordinate all these agencies.
After the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, which destroyed a town of 26,000 people in a matter of hours, all of Maui should have been aware of the need to shut down powerlines during high-wind events. Coordination between fire and law enforcement is also at the top of the list. Each seemed to be operating independently of the other in Lahaina. I still cannot understand how law enforcement officers could block escape routes. That is like locking people inside a burning building.
Maui should have had trained wildland firefighters. Anyone thinking that the loss of water pressure was a factor here does not have much knowledge of wildfire. You don’t face down an advancing wildfire pushed by 70 mph winds with a hose. Time spent spraying water on a burning house, surrounded by 30 other burning houses, is a waste of time. Forget the houses and concentrate on evacuating people.
How many eventual victims could have been saved if those roadblocks were removed? After the Camp Fire in Paradise, I’ve championed the establishment of “safe zones” rather than road evacuation. It didn’t work in Paradise, and it didn’t work in Maui. There is a concrete parking garage at the north end of Lahaina. I would bet that 500-600 people could have sheltered in place there. Athletic and play fields at the schools were other possible safe zones. There are many experts in planning and coordinating wildfire efforts. Because the local officials on Maui, with years of advance warning, couldn’t properly prepare for a disaster, bring in some experts from the mainland.
Chuck Sheley (Cave Junction ’59) graduated from Chico State University in 1960. He taught Physical Education for 36 years and coached track and cross country in Chico for 53 years. After two seasons on an engine crew on the Lassen National Forest, he jumped at Cave Junction 1959-66, then out of Fairbanks 1967-1970. Sheley was the organized crew coordinator for the Mendocino National Forest for 19 years, where he recruited and trained 300 new firefighters each year. He finished his fire career with 34 seasons in wildland firefighting, and he’s still coaching and officiating Track & Field and has served as editor of Smokejumper magazine since 1999 — he’s also the vice president of the National Smokejumper Association.
First responders showed up within minutes of the first reports to dispatch, on the huge wildfire last summer that nearly destroyed Lahaina, the historic Hawaiian town on the island of Maui. The first emergency calls came in to dispatch at 2:55 p.m. on August 8, according to the new report by the State Attorney General. Firefighters spotted smoke at 2:57 p.m., arrived at the fire at 3:00 p.m., and were joined by law enforcement who said the first building caught fire at 3:05 p.m.
The new report indicated that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has a separate investigation underway into the origin and the cause of the fire.
Maui fire progression map
According to the REUTERS report, first responders battled a storm of embers sailing downslope ahead of unusually high winds. The fires destroyed most of Lahaina, the former capital of the Hawaiian kingdom, killing over 100 people.
The Associated Press compiled numerous 911 calls that dispatchers on the island received the next day, and the dispatchers’ answers were the same each time; police and fire responders couldn’t help find missing people because they were still trying to get people to safety, still working hotspots and responding to fires.
The New York Times reported that fatalities from the Maui fires surpassed that of even the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California, and made the Maui fires the deadliest since the Cloquet inferno in Minnesota killed hundreds back in 1918.
The island’s officials were pleading with tourists from the U.S. mainland and elsewhere to cancel vacation plans and spare locals and emergency responders the drain on scarce resources, and later encouraged tourists to come back to the island that depends heavily on visitors and tourism dollars. Hotels and other lodging options on Maui scrambled to shelter evacuees and the suddenly homeless; that struggle on the island is far from over.The state attorney general’s office has more maps online.
Fire detection sensors are being set up around Maui and other Hawaiian islands to allow local resources to respond faster when wildfires break out, said Governor Josh Green today.
CNN reports that Maui Mayor Richard Bissen added, “The introduction of an early detection system will give our first responders a critical advantage in protecting our community. With this new technology, detecting fires at the very early phases will save lives.”
According to MauiNow, the remote sensors are en route to Kīhei and Lahaina, and they will use a combination of thermal imaging, gas detection, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms; the wildfire sensors detect concentrations or spikes in particulates or carbon monoxide to identify wildfire ignition — in real time. The sensors transmit data by email or text notifications to pre-set contacts, and the remote units are small enough for installation on utility poles or traffic lights. They can also work in all weather conditions, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
“What’s important is we get to the scene as fast as we can, so that we can catch fire in incipient phases,” said Maui Fire Chief Brad Ventura. “Today we share one more tool that’s going to help expedite our responses to our communities.”
About 80 fire sensors are being set up around the islands; the first 20 on Maui are planned for deployment by the first week of April.
These sensors detect heat and also can track anomalies such as airborne smoke particles and gases produced by fires — and can distinguish those from other substances common in the air around Hawai’i — including volcanic ash and ocean salt.
~ Thanks and a tip of the hardhat to Rick for this.
“The flames came back … they’re in the trees and the grass.”
“We slept on the street.”
“We’re dying out here.”
The Associated Press has compiled numerous 911 calls from the barrage that Maui operators received the day after wildfires swept through Lahaina. The operator answers were the same each time; emergency responders weren’t able to help find missing people because they were still trying to get people to safety, still working hotspots and responding to fires.
The 911 recordings from the morning and early afternoon of August 9, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, were the third batch of calls released by the Maui Police Department in response to a public records request. The recordings demonstrate that dispatchers and first responders were limited by diminished staffing and communications failures.
Some callers ask where their family members are, some report disastrous fire damage, and others plead with dispatch to tell them where to go to be safe. People were trapped in their homes or hotel rooms, many with no food or water. With each desperate call, operators had relatively the same response: they had no answers.
It’s been nearly five months since wildfires devastated Lahaina, on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Since then, images of the destruction have captivated the nation.
Honolulu Civil Beat has compiled collections of photos from each month of the aftermath, cataloging the desperation and the assistance that has flooded the area since the wildfires were controlled.
“We have thousands of images in our growing media database, of Lahaina and Upcountry, the victims and the landscape that were left in ash and ruin,” Patti Epler wrote for the Civil Beat. “In the past nearly five months, we’ve photographed numerous community gatherings, resource fairs, public officials in various settings from press conferences to legislative hearings. We’ve picked a smattering that we think represents the story that is continuing to unfold and we’ll publish these galleries at the end of each month.”
Scientists have introduced a new theory for the cause of the Maui fires in August, and the theory casts doubt on previous assumptions that linked the wildfires to nearby Hurricane Dora. Weather models show the fires were actually blown by the same meteorological phenomenon that’s often behind California’s worst wildfires — a downslope windstorm (see Rattlesnake).
Nearly four months after the Lahaina Fire that devastated Maui — leaving 100 people dead and 6,000 still homeless — scientists have clarified a new theory; according to a report by the Daily Mail, video footage documenting the fire revealed a wind-driven firestorm, but the power outages during the firestorm left scientists uncertain about which factors had caused the fire behavior.
Atmospheric researchers have now simulated the weather and fire trends in western Maui. In Lahaina, the main cause of the fires was a strong high-pressure system north of Hawai’i that intensified the easterly tradewinds, and when those winds ran up against the slopes in West Maui, the speed increased as the winds blew downhill. When they hit Lahaina they’d reached hurricane strength.
Simulations by the University of Nevada-Reno and the State University of New York at Buffalo showed that sustained winds in Lahaina on August 8 were nearly 80 mph with gusts exceeding 90 mph. Studies by the University of Hawaii and the University of Washington simulated similar wind speeds.
Cliff Mass, an atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Washington who simulated the Maui windstorm, said the combination of fuels, strong winds, and ignition sources is a common set-up for destructive wildfires.
“There’s a real story for Californians here because what happened in Maui, what happened in the Marshall Fire, what happened at Paradise … they’re all the same thing,” Mass told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Chronicle reported that videos from Lahaina showed a wind-driven fire, but that because weather stations in the area had lost power during the fire, researchers could not be certain about exactly which factors had combined to create the firestorm. Many had initially attributed the disaster to Hurricane Dora near the island.
Below is a forecast vertical cross-section of the situation on the island at about 11 a.m. Hawaii time. Cliff Mass explains that winds are shown by the color shading and arrows. “The solid lines are potential temperature. An extraordinarily high amplitude wave had formed, with air descending the western side of the Maui Mountains, accelerating as it plummeted toward Lahaina. At low elevations, the flow abruptly ascended, in a feature often termed a hydraulic jump.”
Cliff Mass illustration — Maui Mountains
He said the Lahaina situation involved a wet winter, followed by a dry summer, causing grasses to grow exceptionally in the spring to create a dense fuel load, ready to burn.
The heart of the historic town of Lahaina that burned in a deadly August wildfire that killed at least 100 people on the Hawaiian island of Maui is reopening to residents and business owners holding day passes, according to an Associated Press story, and the renewed access marks a big milestone for the victims of the fires. Safely clearing properties and rebuilding will still take a long time, and residents are worried about where on the island the remaining fire debris will be discarded.
Banyan Tree Park, home to a treasured 150-year-old Banyan tree that burned in the fire but is now producing new sprouts, is re-opened, along with the public library, an elementary school, and some restaurants.
Maui air quality map
The state Department of Health has confirmed that the ash and dust left by the fire is toxic — and that arsenic is the biggest concern. Arsenic is a heavy metal that adheres to wildfire dust and ash and can be harmful. Samples collected in early November from dozens of sites on the island also showed high levels of lead, commonly used in house paint for buildings constructed before 1978.
The federal EPA is removing risks such as batteries, pesticides, propane tanks, and other hazards and chemicals from local buildings. Residents and property owners can visit their sites after the EPA has cleared them. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is hauling debris to a landfill after property owners grant permission, using lined dumpsters that are then wrapped and sealed before they are dumped at the landfill.
Maui air quality map
The EPA and the state health department have installed dozens of air monitors in Lahaina and upcountry Maui, where another fire burned in early August. The FIRE AND SMOKE MAP is online; residents snd visitors are advised to avoid outdoor activity during times of elevated air pollution.
Attorneys for Hawaiian Electric Company, who face dozens of lawsuits over the utility’s liability for the Maui fires, are trying to move the cases to federal court and not have the trials set on the island. Most of the lawsuits claim that MECO either caused the fires when high winds hit downed powerlines, or didn’t do enough to prevent damage once the fires were burning.
Maui’s power was out before the fires started — but then Hawaiian Electric switched it back on. In congressional testimony, President and CEO Shelee Kimura confirmed what many had already suspected — that the utility re-energized its lines just before the early morning fire took off. Honolulu Civil Beat reported that the power was already out in West Maui at 5 a.m. — caused by the hurricane storm winds on August 8 — and it could have stayed off if Hawaiian Electric had not decided to re-energize the lines.
Ignoring or re-prioritizing the danger, the company rebooted a tripped transmission line, in order to keep the power on to some customers in Lahaina despite the high winds and extreme fire danger. The power was back on about 6 a.m. and within an hour a downed powerline near Lahainaluna Road ignited a fire that was likely the origin of the firestorm that ripped through Lahaina and killed over 100 people. Numerous lawsuits have been initiated since then, and Hawaii News Now reports that HECO is asking the federal courts to try the case in Honolulu with a federal judge.
They argue that federal jurisdiction is possible because one of the defendants being sued is out of state.
“I don’t think that there’s authority for what they’re doing,” said Lance Collins, a lawyer for the wildfire victims. “And this just seems to be one huge waste of everybody’s time. It’s a delaying tactic.”
Collins doesn’t believe Hawaiian Electric is trying to avoid a jury made up of Maui residents — a logical assumption — because he says a federal jury would still be sympathetic to the victims. Hawaiian Electric argues that the federal courts have more resources for a case of this magnitude.
All the lawsuits are expected to be combined into a single trial.
Reuters, meanwhile, reports that Hawaiian Electric is already advancing a plan to replace six of its fossil-fuel generators with renewable energy sources, which will add more around-the-clock renewable generation. The utility company has begun contract negotiations for 15 renewable energy projects, advancing toward Hawaii’s goal of 100 percent renewable energy by 2045.
The hurricane-driven Maui firestorm was the worst fire disaster in the U.S. in over a century; the New York Times reported on August 13 that fatalities resulting from the Maui fires had surpassed that of the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California; it was the deadliest wildfire since the 1918 Cloquet inferno in Minnesota killed hundreds of people. Both locals and experts were pleading with tourists from the U.S. mainland and elsewhere to cancel vacation plans and spare locals and emergency responders the drain on scarce resources. Hotels and other lodging options on Maui were scrambling to shelter evacuees and the suddenly homeless.
A local CBS affiliate reported that dozens of homes and businesses were destroyed on the western part of the island of Maui, the second largest and third most populated island in the state. HawaiiNewsNow reported that witnesses described apocalyptic scenes; residents said an overwhelmed fire force, fighting flames all day in powerful winds, could do little as flames ripped through and leveled most of the historic district of Lahaina.
Not quite four months later, the state investigation is focused on fire locations and a timeline of events, and it’s still lacking critical facts, according to the Fire Safety Research Institute, which was hired by the state’s attorney general. “Until that happens, this critical process cannot move forward,” said Attorney General Anne Lopez. She said some Maui agencies have cooperated with investigators, but that subpoenas were issued to the Maui Emergency Management Agency, the Maui Department of Public Works and the Maui Department of Water Supply. The Honolulu Civil Beat said it contacted all three agencies and got no response from any of them.
Mahina Martin with Mayor Richard Bissen’s office said the county has “cooperated fully” with the investigation but that the county has not shared everything investigators have requested. She explained that some items were submitted to investigators, about 20 more are pending, and another dozen require federal Department of Homeland Security clearance before they can be produced. She said investigators have finished more than 90 interviews of county personnel.
Civil Beat asked the attorney general’s office what information it is seeking through the subpoenas but they declined. In the aftermath of the historic fires, Civil Beat filed records requests with the Maui Emergency Management Agency — including text messages, emergency operations center activity logs, requests for assistance to the state and its continuity plan, and an outline of who is in charge if top leadership is absent, as was the case on August 8 when the fires started. MEMA has not provided any of these records.
A report by The Hill said the fires damaged or destroyed more than 2,000 structures and burned over 2,000 acres, according to FEMA records. The rebuilding could cost upward of $5 billion.
Other Maui agencies, meanwhile, have handed over requested information to investigators and the AG’s office. “We appreciate the cooperation of the Maui fire and police departments, and while we continue to work through some issues, their leaders and line responders have been transparent and cooperative,” Lopez said.
She said some Maui agencies have cooperated with investigators, but that subpoenas were issued to the Maui