Kaʻū News Briefs, Saturday, May 11, 2019

Representatives of Volunteer Fire Departments, land stewardship organizations, and the coffee industry met to discuss the wildfire season and safety. Hawaiʻi Wildfire Management Organization offered help. Photo by Julia Neal

     Other possible burn areas surround most villages and neighborhoods of Kaʻū. Volunteer firefighters from Ocean View, Discovery Harbour, and Pāhala, along with other residents, vowed to reach out to their communities to help make them safer from destruction by wildfires.
     Hawaiʻi Wildfire Management representatives Pablo Beimler and Carson Magoon said they will work with homeowners to make dwellings more fire safe and to develop evacuation plans. They offered to work with large landowners on mapping properties for fire risks, escape routes, and possible firebreaks. They offered to go into the schools to teach children about fire safety. They distributed the Ready, Set, Go! Your Personal Wildland Fire Action Guide.
     They said that communities could become firewise-certified and may in the future receive lower fire insurance rates from some insurance companies, like USAA.
     James Akau, of Nā Mamo o Kāwā, cosponsored the meeting and a work day at Kāwā today. He talked about planting fire-resistant native plants.
     Beimler said the prediction is that wildfires will become more numerous and more frequent in Hawaiʻi and across the planet.
     He reviewed preparedness for homeowners and talked about the 10-foot rule: keeping most vegetation, bushes, and trees at least ten feet from buildings. Beimler talked about "ladders" - vegetation, with branches, acting as ladders for fire to climb up the side of a house and burn it. He said post and pier homes collect kindling beneath them and recommended blocking off the area under houses with a mesh. Pāhala fire Captain Ron Ebert emphasized using stainless steel mesh so that it will last a long time.
     The Wildfire Management team mentioned wildfires that combine and become so hot that nothing can survive. They noted the Australia fires that trapped hundreds who died on a highway, and the Paradise, California fire that trapped people and took out most of the town.
     They talked about building materials that are "hardened" against fire. While it would be expensive to cover an old wooden home with fire retardant siding, it would be advisable to use fire retardant materials for additions, they said. When replacing roofing, choose fire retardant materials.
     Embers were a major theme of the presentation. Embers can blow under houses and light up the kindling of leaves, dry grass, and other materials beneath the floors. Embers can enter into roof openings. Embers can float from long distances, where wildfires are burning, and make it through a window screen. They are a major ignitor of fires, they said.
     Communities can come together to work on fire prevention plans for neighborhoods. Sometimes grants are available. Waikoloa Village created a kind of firebreak that also serves as a walking trail on the outskirts of a neighborhood and created landscapes with plants that don't burn easily, said the representatives of Wildfire Management. They presented the idea of landscaping with native plants, particularly those more resistant to fire.
     The Ready, Set, Go! Hawaiʻi, a Personal Wildland Fire Action Guide is available to download.

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