HONOLULU– Hawaii lawmakers will meet this week for the first time since the burning of historic Lahaina made the state aware of the deadly and costly threat posed by wildfires in an era of climate change.
The tragedy refocused lawmakers’ attention. Now fighting and preventing wildfires and helping the island of Maui recover from the flames is top of the agenda as Hawaii’s legislature returns for another session this week.
“It really accelerated us in a different way,” said state Rep. Nadine Nakamura, House Majority Leader and Democrat.
The August 8 fire killed 100 people, destroyed more than 2,000 buildings and displaced 12,000 people. Experts estimate it will cost $5.5 billion to replace the structures exposed to the fire.
Investigators are still investigating how the fire started. High winds caused by a powerful hurricane that passed south of Hawaii helped the flames spread quickly, as did drought and non-native fire-prone grasses.
Another fire in early August burned about 20 homes in Kula, a town on the slopes of the Haleakala volcano.
House Democrats will look at statewide wildfire prevention needs and develop an understanding of what the Department of Land and Natural Resources needs to do a better job, Nakamura said.
A wildfire prevention working group formed after the fire recommended a series of new measures, including an awareness campaign to prevent fires from starting and tax or insurance incentives for wildfire-safe structures. The working group recommended that the state maintain firefighting aircraft and other equipment specifically to fight forest fires.
The Senate majority said in a news release that it was committed to forming a fire risk task force and seeking permanent funding for the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, a hub for wildfire prevention and mitigation.
Democrats have overwhelming majorities in both chambers and control 44 of the 50 seats in the House of Representatives (one seat is vacant) and 23 of the 25 seats in the Senate.
Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat, asked lawmakers in December to provide $425 million for Maui cleanup efforts and emergency housing, and millions more to reduce the risk of wildfires statewide.
Colin Moore, a political science professor at the University of Hawaii, said it was clear after Lahaina that government agencies need more money to manage forests and other natural resources. That could help revive a proposal considered last year to charge visitors for an annual pass to visit state parks and trails.
The bill would be popular during an election year, Moore said.
“That’s the kind of thing that lawmakers want to advertise in their re-election campaigns,” he said.
Nakamura said the Maui fires exacerbated a problem that existed long before: the proliferation of vacation rentals across the state.
Thousands of Lahaina residents who lost their homes in the fire are still living in hotels five months after the fire because there aren’t enough homes for them, even as tourists rent apartments among them. Many wildfire evacuees have left Maui because they cannot find a place to live.
Lawmakers could revise legislation that has previously failed that would give provinces the authority to phase out short-term rentals, Nakamura said.
An analysis from the University of Hawaii estimates that vacation rentals make up 15% of Maui’s housing stock. In Lahaina the ratio is 40%.
Moore expects lawmakers will continue to try to address one of Hawaii’s most persistent challenges: the state-wide housing shortage and the high cost of housing that is fueling an exodus of Native Hawaiians and other locally born residents from the state. But any measures would likely be “marginal reforms” rather than dramatic revisions, he said.
“I think you’ll see more of what we’ve seen in the past, which is figuring out what the right mix is of regulatory reforms, subsidies and rent subsidies,” Moore said.
He said the people most in need of affordable housing are a large, unorganized group that has little influence over the Legislature. Groups that care passionately about regulations that limit or slow housing development — for example, historic preservation rules or environmental regulation — are more easily able to mobilize and advocate, he said.
Nakamura said there will be a push for zoning to allow more housing on individual lots and to put money into funds that subsidize the development of affordable housing.
There is widespread understanding that Hawaii needs more shelter for residents, Nakamura said, recounting how she has spoken with business leaders and people in the tourism and health care industries who say their workers need housing.
“If they can’t find affordable rent and use their skills in Hawaii, we all lose,” she said.