With a drier-than-normal dry season forecast for now through Sept. 30, officials are urging the public to do its part to prevent wildfires and to help keep Big Island communities safe, should a blaze occur.
A state and county inter-agency campaign called “Wildfire &Drought LOOKOUT!” kicked off Wednesday with a press conference at Civil Defense headquarters in Hilo.
Making the plea for public awareness and readiness on the Big Island is apropos. The Mana Road fire in late July and early August 2021 scorched more than 40,000 acres, destroying two homes and forcing the evacuation of Waikoloa Village, and the Leilani Fire blackened 17,000 acres just south of Waikoloa last August.
Both fires were fueled by invasive grasses, authorities said.
“Twenty-five percent of Hawaii is covered in invasive fire-adapted grasses. And while these grasses are flammable year round, they can produce extreme fire danger in … times of drought that can impact our homes, our livestock and our forested watersheds,” said Michael Walker, state protection forester for the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife.
Derek Wroe, a lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in Honolulu, said the above-average rainfall experienced in the wet season that ended on April 30 and the current greenery in most of the state could have caused complacency about wildfire season.
“We’re expecting this dry season to be below normal in terms of rainfall. What that means is the abundant vegetation that’s there now, it will dry out and provide available fuel for wildfires,” Wroe said.
Wroe said that because of the current El Nino — a phenomenon causing equatorial waters in the Pacific to be warmer than usual — the dry season will be “a little bit longer than normal.”
“That extends the high fire risk into the normal beginning of the wet season,” he said. “And looking out a little bit farther than that, it could be that the coming wet season in the wintertime will also have rainfall less than normal. We could see extensions of the dry conditions for quite some time.”
Assistant Fire Chief Darwin Okinaka advised residents to visit hawaiiwildfire.org, the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization website.
“There’s a lot of resources there that you can use to educate yourself and keep your home safe,” Okinaka said. “With the upcoming drought season … there is concern for wildfires, and especially in the areas that are really prone to wildfires.
“We may not be able to respond to every incident that is out there, or every person’s home. So, knowing how to take care of your home and prepare your home to prevent wildfire ignition at your home is very important.”
Elizabeth Pickett, Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization’s co-executive director, said Hawaii is “among the most fire-prone states in the United States.”
“Wildfires are not like other disasters, where we have no control. Wildfires are caused by both human ignitions and by fuels, and both of those can be reduced and managed,” she said.
“There’s a community Firewise program that’s available for neighborhoods that want to take action together,” Pickett said. “And to complement that program, Hawaii Fire Department and Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization are partnering to pilot a large landowners’ wildfire working group on Hawaii Island. And over time, we hope to extend that to be a working group statewide.”
Pickett defined “large landowners” as those who own at least 1% of the island, and said one of the services the working group hopes to provide is “connecting landowners and land managers to grant programs to assist them with fuels management projects.”
She said one of the things residents can do reduce wildfire risk throughout is to “shore up and mitigate around your home and yard, and work with your family on evacuation planning.”
Walker encouraged the public to be “fire-wise and fire-safe.”
“Maintain vegetation around your homes,” he said, meaning mowing lawns and trimming trees and shrubbery. “Be mindful of where you pull over and idle or park over dry grasses. And be especially careful when welding or doing other hot work this summer — and please refrain from doing it in high-wind conditions.”
Okinaka said those living in Firewise communities “have access to free home assessments utilizing assessors that have been trained to look at different risk factors around your home and how you can better prepare your home.”
A list of Firewise communities in Hawaii County includes: Kailapa, Waimea; Kanehoa Subdivision, Waimea; Kohala By The Sea, Waimea; Kohala Waterfront, Waimea; Puuanahulu; Puukapu, Waimea; Waialea, Waimea; Waikii Ranch, Waimea; and Waikoloa Village.
County Civil Defense Administrator Talmadge Magno said the public safety agency is introducing “a new advisory system, color-coded … basically replicating what the National Weather Service puts out, as far as watches, warnings and advisories.”
Magno stressed it’s in everyone’s interest to keep their eyes and ears open for official information in case of an emergency.
“Civil Defense’s responsibility is to get alerts and messaging out to the public,” he said. “You choose the best way you want to receive it, whether text, email or phone call. You can go to the (County of Hawaii) website to access our Everbridge system to receive those messages.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.