Haleakalā Crater Road fire update: How incident command and situational awareness have evolved since Maui’s wildfires last August

Firefighters battling the Haleakalā Crater Road fire have been challenged by difficult terrain, lava fields on the mauka side, soft soil when cutting firebreaks on the lower perimeter, swirling afternoon winds and low humidity. The fire has burned 574 acres since it first started on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. As of Monday morning, July 15, it was 80% contained. By 7 p.m. Monday, the containment and acreage remained unchanged.

Maui fire officials note that while each fire is different, they have identified new technologies and organization that have helped to keep agencies better connected.

Maui Fire Chief Brad Ventura said crews on scene have established bulldozer lines around about 70% of the fire, with contingency dozer lines around the south west corner about a quarter mile outside of the perimeter, thanks to assistance from Alpha, Goodfellow Bros. and Haleakalā Ranch. As of this morning, dozer lines had not yet been closed at the top of the fire, above the eucalyptus trees.

“The perimeter of this fire is four miles long—only a quarter mile of it having a road along the perimeter. So the helicopters have multiple tasks, not only fighting the fire, but also shuttling firefighters,” he said.

The department has been using drone technology at night to provide situational awareness and detect flare ups. During the day, up to seven helicopters have been doing water drops to battle the blaze.

“Overall, since the fire started, we’ve shuttled over half a million gallons of water up the hill to fight this fire at the peak of our efforts,” said Ventura. He said air crews dropped over 63,000 gallons of water on the fire on Friday and Saturday alone.

“The elevation up there creates its own challenges. The relative humidity up there is very low—so that increases our fire behavior. And then the afternoon clouds come in, so that grounds our aircraft,” said Ventura. “And then the high winds have come and gone throughout the week. Obviously, when there are some higher winds, we have a lot more flare ups,” he said, reminding the community to remain vigilant as crews will continue to douse hotspots inside the perimeter into the future.

Maui Emergency Management Administrator Amos Lonokailua-Hewett outlined objectives of the Emergency Operations Center including:

• Ensuring public safety, beginning with the concern of the 200 vehicles cut off, as well as the potential of the fire to switch and trigger an evacuation.
• Coordinating resources and response efforts and ensuring that they are integrated within the incident command system.
• Gathering and disseminating information to the public in a timely manner, and sharing that information with partners to streamline coordination.
• Support recovery and restoration of critical infrastructure in coordination with partners.

Acting Gov. Sylvia Luke said red flag warnings have become a “new normal.” “During this time, we all have to be vigilant about not just hurricane readiness, but wildfire readiness. For individuals—especially in the Kula area—our sympathies and empathy goes out to these individuals because they’ve already experienced tremendous amount of trauma,” she said.

When asked about situational awareness, the incident command structure, and what has improved since last year, Fire Chief Ventura said, “The more of our organizations we can put together on scene to create a unified command, the easier it is to communicate amongst agencies.

“We’ve been working on that for over a year to kind of continue to polish it up and make it more routine,” said Ventura. “That is going to help. And then as far as technologies… we’ve introduced things like our drone program and that allows us to have more situational awareness not only during the day but also at night. Even that program in itself has room for improvement because as right now, we fly either aircraft or drones, but not at the same time. But we have to get to a point, eventually, where we can fly both of them together because they provide different information for command.”

Mayor Richard Bissen said, “I think we all understand that each fire is very different—and this fire is different from the multiple fires that occurred last year. So this times five—was what it was like last year. I think the most obvious difference is we have a different team, who have a different set of skills, running our EOC… As far as lessons learned, I think we’re still, trying to improve through each event.”

While there have been no injuries and no structures damaged, Bissen acknowledged the anxiety among residents in the area.

“I just want to acknowledge the concern that our community is having right now—the anxiety, the stress, the reminders that trigger people’s memories. And we want to make sure that, our community is aware of the help that’s, available—especially our Kula, ʻohana that have had to experience this again, so close to their homes,” said Mayor Richard Bissen.

Mental health support is available with the county offering resources through the mauirecovers.org website and the Hawaiʻi Crisis Line at 988. “We want to encourage our citizens that are that are experiencing sadness and anxiety to call those numbers and reach out,” he said. The State’s support line at 808-446-6676 is also available for guidance on resources for residents.

Mayor Bissen encouraged community members and visitors to continue to stay alert and connected.