Latest Fire Recovery News

Maui’s economy will only gradually recover from its post-wildfire downturn while visitor industries in other counties across the state will continue to operate at high levels, according to the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization’s (UHERO) third quarter forecast for 2024.

The County of Maui Department of Environmental Management’s Wastewater Reclamation Division has amended the Sewer Service Status from “red,” to “green,” for several lots near Mill and Kuhua streets.

In a testament to their unwavering commitment to help residents recover after the 2023 Kula fire, the grassroots nonprofit, Mālama Kula, completed their goal of 30 straight community work days during the month of August as their way of commemorating the one year anniversary of the fire that claimed 20 homes in Kula and scorched 202 acres of land. 

Hawaiian Electric is raising awareness about its drone operations after one of its contracted drones was damaged while midair, downing the tool as it was being used to inspect overhead lines on Maui last week. Company representatives say the drone was purposely targeted. As part of its ongoing wildfire safety strategy, Hawaiian Electric is using unmanned aircrafts, or drones, for aerial inspections within Maui County, Hawai‘i Island and O‘ahu to inspect its electrical infrastructure in identified wildfire risk areas.

US Sen. Brian Schatz led 10 bipartisan senators on Friday in calling for additional disaster relief funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund and Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) ahead of the governments’ Sept. 30 funding deadline.

Maui County Council members unanimously approved on second-and-final reading a bill for conditional change of zoning from residential to public/quasi-public for Grace Baptist Church. Last year’s wildfire destroyed the longtime church, and members of its congregation are eager to rebuild.

With residential debris removal 100% complete in areas south of Shaw Street, opening of these zones in Lahaina is set for Monday, Sept. 16, at 6 a.m.

The Lahaina wildfire that killed at least 102 people and destroyed more than 2,000 buildings did not stem from a single cause, according to the phase-two Lahaina Fire Incident Analysis Report released Friday and prepared by the independent Fire Safety Research Institute for the state of Hawaiʻi.

A summary report of community engagement by the County of Maui with the Lahaina community is now available to view and download on the Ola Lahaina page at www.MauiRecovers.org.

Hawaiʻi Attorney General Anne Lopez announced today the results of the Lahaina Fire Incident Analysis Report, the second report of the three-part evidence-based investigation into how state and county governments responded during the Maui wildfires. The report reveals no single factor led to the devastation. Instead, a complex set of factors including weather and its impacts, risk and preparedness, decades-old infrastructure, organizational structure and incident management and coordination created a historic disaster. The report was prepared by the Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI), a part of UL Research Institutes.

As Congress considers a short-term spending bill to keep the government open past the Sept. 30 funding deadline, US Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) Thursday spoke on the Senate floor on the importance of including disaster aid to support survivors on Maui and across the country. In particular, Schatz stressed the need to provide disaster survivors with flexible, long-term assistance in the form of Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funding which will enable them to rebuild their homes and communities as quickly as possible.

Months ahead of the original January 2025 deadline, debris has been cleared from 100 percent of 1,390 residential properties in the Lahaina Impact Zone, according to the County of Maui.

US Rep. Jill Tokuda honored the memory of the Maui fire victims upon her return to Congress on Tuesday morning. While on the House Floor, she read the names of the victims and those still missing (while displaying their photos), entering them into the Congressional Record. 

US Small Business Administration Associate Administrator Francisco Sánchez Jr. convened a roundtable of local business and community leaders Thursday to listen and learn about SBA’s performance following the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires.

Mayor Bissen, along with County of Maui Managing Director Josiah Nishita and other County staff, will travel to California to attend the After the Fire USA 2024 Wildfire Leadership Summit.

Whaler’s Fine Jewelry owner Tien Doan is no stranger to adversity. A survivor of Pol Pot’s “Killing Fields” in Cambodia, Doan lost his Front Street family home to last year’s wildfire, along with two vacation rental properties — reduced to ashes.

The County of Maui’s Office of Recovery and the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement announced a partnership that brings CNHA’s Kākoʻo Maui Resource Center to the Office of Recovery-West Maui at Lahaina Gateway.

The Hawai‘i Department of Transportation advises highway users to expect delays this weekend as wide loads will be transported from Kahului Harbor to a staging area near the Kahului boat ramp beginning Saturday morning, Sept. 7 through Monday morning, Sept. 9. Trucks will be transporting modular homes that will eventually be moved to Lahaina for wildfire survivors.

Members of the US House Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce, including Hawaiʻi US Reps. Jill Tokuda and Ed Case, heard an update Wednesday on last year’s deadly wildfires during a hearing at the Lahaina Civic Center.

Mobile Power Hawaiʻi announced the launch of its new mobile solar generator, the PowerCube. The PowerCube is a formidable 10 kW solar array with 28 kWh of stored energy mounted to a trailer. The flexibility of the PowerCube and its production capabilities are the result of longtime Maui residents Corey Barth and Paul Maselli’s ingenuity and problem-solving in the wake of the Lahaina fires.