An Engulfing Blaze in Hawaii
This story first appeared in New Albany High School’s student paper, The Blotter, on Sept. 12, 2023.
As the deadliest wildfire in nearly a century in the United States blazed through Hawaii, questions still linger about how it started and developed.
“A lot of your wildfires, like in California, are from the winds and excessive heat,” New Albany High School (NAHS) Environmental Science teacher Deborah Haeberlin said. “So things like that will play a role and along with that if anything [is] spontaneously combusted or just a bad choice.”
Haeberlin has been to Hawaii herself as a part of a research trip to compare erosion between the islands. She notes that any dry heat can cause fires, which is true in the Hawaii wildfires as well. According to an early hypothesis from ABC News, dry grass was ignited from power lines falling after the devastating hurricane, Dora.
According to Cable News Network (CNN), the first signs of a wildfire starting were on Aug. 8, in Lahaina, Maui, when a wildfire was reported early in the morning. Just a few hours later, the county announced in a statement it was fully contained. With the containment, it seemed like everything was over – but it was not.
“Not on that island where it happened, but there’s a lot of military presence,” Spanish teacher and Hawaii native Jessica Philpot said. “So there is a lot of [immediate] help already there.”
At 2:30 p.m. the same day, the wildfires again ignited, and just a few hours later everybody went into panic, according to The Washington Post. Sylvia Luke, the acting Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii, declared an emergency proclamation in a statement, asking for assistance. Although the response to that was swift, with the Hawaii National Guard arriving a few hours later, there was an underlying problem.
“They’ve had a really good response to [the fire] because everybody jumps into action and helps everybody and they have a lot of warning systems,” Philpot said. “[Similar to how] after a tsunami they have tsunami warnings in place. So they have all of these alert systems in place to get a text on your phone.”
What Philpot describes, however, never actually happened. Although the warning systems were supposed to sound in the event of a fire, they never did. Moreover, the Emergency Management Chief for Hawaii did not do anything. With roads blocked and residents unaware of the fire, he chose not the warn the people. He resigned just a few days later, on Aug. 18, citing health concerns, according to the New York Times.
“Knowing that a lot of [Hawaii] is going to get destroyed is heartbreaking,” Science teacher Haeberlin said. “But I also know over time it will be rebuilt, and the ash that will be put down [and] benefit the soil, so it will rebirth.”
As Haeberlin notes, the impact of the wildfires is enormous: At least 97 people have been killed, while 22 people remain missing.
NAHS senior Alaina Hutchinson has been involved in trying to help the locals of Hawaii recover from the fire. For example, in her Jobs after Graduation class, students were instructed to write letters about the tragedy.
“I wrote about trying to sympathize with the people who had lost people,” Hutchinson said. “Their loved ones, like family and friends.”
She says this helped her gain empathy for the locals. She is not the only one trying to lend a hand, though. The Community Foundation of Southern Indiana, which includes New Albany, has set up resources to donate to organizations like SOS and Hawai’i Community Foundation.
With these organizations and the outpouring of assistance to Hawaii, people will recover. But this will likely not be the last time disaster will strike, which is why Hutchinson advocates for helping the environment.
“Take better care of our planet,” Hutchinson said. “That would probably be a really big one. It is a lot to do just with one person, but I think a lot can happen if a lot of people put their mind to it. Things can change.”
Editor’s note: This story was edited to reflect more current facts, such as the number of dead and missing.
