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Ten priorities to help protect Hawaii from wildfires were laid out at a legislative hearing Tuesday by the Attorney General’s Office and the national Fire Safety Research Institute . 

They include implementing better planning and accountability, bolstering building and fire codes, increasing wildfire education and implementing the office of state fire marshal — with a lot more financial support than the Legislature proposed last session. 

The priorities stem from the second phase of the attorney general’s released in September. In response, Gov. Josh Green requested a list of the top priorities for wildfire mitigation and preparedness.

The top priority is for Hawaii to look at other states for guidance on appropriate wildfire policies and use a multidisciplinary team to address the litany of factors feeding Hawaii’s perilous fire problems.  

The second phase report had not been intended to guide policy, but the 2025 legislative session is looming and the AG’s office is “behind schedule,” Lopez told members of two House committees during an informational briefing.

The AG’s three-part fire investigation has now been completed, but the forward-looking third phase report will not be released until sometime next year, Lopez said. 

“We can’t wait for that phase to start discussing,” she said. 

Nine additional priorities address some now-well-known problems and steps that have already been discussed, such as restoring a state fire marshal’s office, which was the No. 2 priority.

Much of the responsibility for the additional priorities is contingent on the first two. They include:

• Priority 3: Wildfire education programs.
• Priority 4: Communication systems.
• Priority 5: Utilities risk reduction and planning.
• Priority 6: Fire weather forecasting.
• Priority 7: Evacuation procedures.
• Priority 8: Codes and standards.
• Priority 9: Wildfire response preparedness.
• Priority 10: Vegetation and land management.

Lawmakers agreed to reinstate the office of the fire marshal earlier this year, but report author and FSRI program manager Derek Alkonis cast doubt over whether the state would find a suitable candidate because of what he considered the low funding allocated for the office. 

The State Fire Council estimated it would cost just short of $1.2 million to create a fire marshal’s office with 14 staff members. Lawmakers this year agreed to just $172,000 for a two-person office. 

“From our perspective, that’s light. In fact, that’s very light,” considering the anticipated workload, Alkonis said.

The fire council, comprised of the fire chiefs of Hawaii’s four counties, is currently looking for a candidate for the job, which was eliminated by the Legislature in 1979.

Lopez said that an interim leader should be identified so that progress can begin as the search continues for a permanent fire marshal, who she said should serve within the Office of the Governor and be supported by the governor’s resiliency team.

“This is a big job … It has to have substantial support,” Lopez said.

Rep. Mahina Poepoe, whose district includes Molokai, Lanai and part of East Maui, asked about fire and building codes and standards, noting the report raised Lahaina’s state of housing and construction as an issue.

A state wildfire code is needed that would regulate wildfire-prone areas, evacuation routes and water availability, the report said.

But complicating factors, such as the cost of housing and low housing stocks, were raised by Lopez as potential hurdles to bringing the state and county codes up to date. The governor’s emergency proclamation on housing has halted the development of state building codes, which are partly blamed for the high cost of building homes statewide.

“I think we just need to get our processes to be more efficient in completing them on time,” Poepoe said. “I don’t think it’s good practice to just set aside laws that in this report are being recommended to enforce.”

Lopez said the responsibility for addressing those codes would be a key responsibility for the state fire marshal.

Education — priority No. 3 — will be paramount to lessen fire damage, Alkonis said.

That education should be particularly focused on large out-of-state landowners, according to the report.

It recommended that the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization — a nonprofit — receive a steady line of state funding to do more of that work.

Rep. David Tarnas, chair of the House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, said he supported HWMO’s work and its additional involvement going forward.

“We can’t depend on a nongovernment organization to do something based on charitable dollars. We’ve got to pay for it,” Tarnas said.

Alkonis agreed, noting the organization had been doing most of the wildfire education work before the Lahaina disaster.

“We saw that you had a nonprofit selling chili and things to make it all happen,” Alkonis said.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.