What we can learn about wildfire prevention from Maui's deadly 2023 firestorm

Mark Herz: This is GBH’s Morning Edition. As we watch the devastating progression of the wildfires in L.A., a new FRONTLINE documentary is looking back to 2023, when the Hawaiian town of Lahaina experienced the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. GBH’s Dave Epstein spoke to the director of the film on what we can be learning about wildfire prevention and critical missteps.

Dave Epstein: Well, I’m here today with Xinyan Yu. She is the director of the FRONTLINE documentary "Maui’s Deadly Firestorm." And I had an opportunity to watch the documentary. It’s incredibly compelling. Xinyan, thank you for being with us this morning.

Xinyan Yu: Thank you, Dave.

Epstein: I watched the documentary and I couldn’t help, you know, I have my two hats that I wear, my meteorology hat and my horticultural hat, and it certainly has a lot of those elements as well. What lesson did you hope people were going to take away from this who aren’t necessarily, you know, on a Hawaiian island?

Yu: Yeah, I think that the biggest lesson that I learned is how common wildfires could be. I think a lot of people think of it as a stroke of bad luck, that it can happen in a community and in the middle of forest in Canada or in California, where it is, you know, a well-known fire-prone state. But for a popular foresty destination, you know, a seaside town like Lahaina to be burned down, I think it just serves as a reminder that the climate crisis is growing and a lot of people and a lot of communities are not really prepared for it. So I think this film really serves as a reminder that we all really need to prepare before disasters strike.

Epstein: Yeah, I think that here locally this fall we had the driest autumn on record for many locations here in Eastern Massachusetts. And we had a lot of red flag warnings those days, in which fire danger is really high. And we had a lot of brush fires around here. And I think folks here were really surprised by the number of fires. And we had smoke. And for some folks, it was hard to breathe and some recesses were even canceled. What did you learn about land management and fires in the course of the documentary that you think others should — should really think about?

Yu: Yeah. So in the case of Lahaina, the state-commissioned investigation called it a "tragedy years in the making." The community scientists and even the county itself had been sounding the alarm for years and years before this fire. In fact, five years ago, there was exactly — the same time, August 2018, a similar fire struck Lahaina and almost burned down the town. And there was a community meeting right after that fire, where people literally mentioned that if you don’t figure out a evacuation plan or if you don’t figure out a power safety shut off plan, Lahaina could be gone and the Lahaina harbor could be gone. And so when we hear that those words, it’s just really visceral how a disaster like this could be left neglected. And fire prevention, you know, it’s it’s something that’s so abstract and boring. And before disaster struck, the governor, officials weren’t really prioritizing and investing in fire prevention and mitigation.

Epstein: Yeah, I remember one of the sound bites you had in there was that somebody said that 2018 event was, quote, "a canary in the coal mine," and they probably should have taken it a little more seriously. How do you think about what you saw in Lahaina and what we see in terms of the predictions for climate events and climate disasters that are related to our changing climate?

Yu: I think from what we saw in Lahaina we understood that climate story is never one single factor. It’s not just the growing temperature, or the increasingly more dry climate, it is a confluence of factors. It’s a lack of fire prevention, it’s a lack of, you know, even just small things down to a lack of unified command structure between the fire department and the police department, a lack of evacuation plan, a lack of even just communication between the electric company and first responders. Small things like that all contribute to the final magnitude of the fire. So I think a lot of people just think the climate stories are just one-dimensional. But in the case of Lahaina itself, the history of Lahaina even also played a role. You know, the lack of evacuation routes were due to history of plantation, where multifamily housing were built on these very narrow plots of land where community members asked for more evacuation routes. But those requests were sort of left neglected for many years because the money was spent on developing hotels and developing tourism, and not really contributing to the local community and making sure the grasses are being trimmed and all these jobs that need investment and resources.

Epstein: You know, folks might be interested in — just as you tell a story like this, how do you as a director think about telling a story like, what’s your thought process before we see the final product?

Yu: I think it’s really important to hear the community. You know, wildfires often disproportionately affect vulnerable communities, and they’re often not being heard. So when you talk to them, you realize that they’ve been raising the alarm for years and years and they often hold the solution to these climate crisis [effects]. When we were in Lahaina, you know, we learned that it’s really important to make sure that the land is being used in the right way so that it’s sustainable, and the water is also being managed in a sustainable way so that the environment is being taken care of, so when next time when the wildfire hits the community, there’s more protection.

Epstein: So for folks watching the documentary now, what critical questions would you hope that they might ask after after viewing it?

Yu: I think that a really critical question is looking at how prepared your own community is for a similar disaster like this. Are there evacuation plans in place? Is your local fire department getting enough resources and hand crews to not only better communicate with other first responders, but also do the fire prevention work? Are they enforcing their fire code? Are landowners being held responsible for trimming their grasses? So all of these questions are questions that I think, once people watch the film, would understand that are important questions we should ask ourselves.

Epstein: So one thing here in Massachusetts and all around the country, we’re dealing with is tight housing. And if we were to have a natural disaster, say, along the coastline — we have had [the] blizzard of 1978, we’ve lost scores of houses along the coastline. Can you talk about how housing was an issue and contributed to this natural disaster?

Yu: You know, almost 6,000 families lost their housing, which really made the existing problem much worse. So many, many families, including people we’ve interviewed, are still struggling with their rebuilding plan. And people have pitched tents on their property, other people have been waiting for permit[s] for a very long time to try to rebuild. And FEMA, the rental assistance has been running out. So many people are still falling through the cracks. So I think on top of looking at the immediate impact of the disaster, also looking to the long-term aftermath of how the communities are being impacted. I think for a state like Massachusetts it’s also important to ask ourselves, where are we spending our money? Are we are we spending enough money to prepare our communities for future disasters like this? You know, when people are displaced, where they’re going to go.

Epstein: Xinyan, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

Yu: Thank you, Dave.

Herz: That was GBH’s Dave Epstein speaking with the director of the FRONTLINE documentary "Maui’s Deadly Firestorm," now streaming. Next week, we will be talking with Massachusetts fire officials about where the state stands with fire prevention measures here. This is GBH’s Morning Edition.