A new government report on the origins of Hawaii’s Lahaina wildfire shows that the deadly blaze could have been prevented by consistent actions to reduce fire risks. The facts surrounding the tragedy hold lessons for other Western states.

A red-flag warning was issued at 3:17 a.m. on August 8, 2023, due to strong winds that would later become “extreme” that fateful day. A fire began in a wildland-urban interface in the early morning hours when sparks from “failed utility equipment” ignited “dried and overgrown vegetation below.” Winds also caused a nearby wooden utility pole to snap, contributing to an energized overhead powerline contacting the ground and igniting vegetation. The fires spread to an unmaintained firebreak behind a subdivision that was “covered with dense and dry grasses.”

The first 911 call was at 6:35 a.m., and firefighters arrived less than 10 minutes later. By 9 a.m. the wildfire was 100 percent contained. Crews remained at the scene to douse visible hotspots with water and foam until 2:18 p.m., when they left believing that the fire was extinguished. It wasn’t.

Before leaving, a private company, directed by the Maui Fire Department (MFD), used a bulldozer to hastily cut a firebreak between the back of the subdivision and a gully on land owned by Kamehameha Schools. At the bottom of the gully was a dry creek bed that was overgrown with dry, combustible brush, grasses, and short trees. Behind the gully was overgrown vegetation on undeveloped land that had been a sugarcane plantation. The area was a tinderbox.

Shortly before 3 p.m. crews were called back to the scene of the morning fire. Now the gully was engulfed in flames, with wind gusts up to 60 mph. In less than a half hour the fire, fed by “strong and erratic winds,” raced northeast and uphill to the abandoned plantation and southwest and downhill toward Lahaina, quickly overwhelming firefighters.

The federal ATF, which led the investigation, concluded that the Lahaina fire was a “rekindle” of the morning fire, which occurred when a “hidden piece of smoldering material” was moved to the gully, either by wind or the bulldozer, where it ignited unkempt vegetation. The blaze was the nation’s deadliest wildfire in more than a century, with at least 102 people killed, 2,207 structures damaged or destroyed (86 percent residential), and property damage approaching $6 billion.

While the report does not offer recommendations, the findings show that specific actions would have prevented Lahaina’s destruction. A firefighter should have remained at the scene of the morning fire, given the active red-flag warning and the earlier movement of soil by the bulldozer. The Maui Electric Company (MEC) should have had a public safety powershutoffs program in place to de-energize all powerlines in the area in response to the red-flag warning, which had anticipated “high fire danger with rapid spread.” Blackouts are inconvenient but prevent immediate tragedies.

Alternatively long term, areawide safety shutoffs would become unnecessary if MEC installs synchrophasor-based controls that automatically de-energize broken lines two to three times faster than gravity can pull them down; buries powerlines underground where feasible; insulates any remaining aboveground powerlines; and replaces wooden poles with safer steel poles.

In November 2019 MFD ordered Kamehameha Schools to maintain a 30-foot-wide firebreak next to the gully where the rekindled fire later occurred. By all accounts the school ignored the order. In addition, MEC did not remove excess vegetation around its utility poles and under its powerlines. A lawsuit alleges that the County of Maui neglected its responsibility to remove overgrown brush on county-owned land and to enforce local ordinances against excess vegetation on private property, such as in the gully.

Carelessness and indifference unleashed hell on earth in Lahaina. The missteps in Maui are learning opportunities for California and other fire-prone Western states that want to ensure this never happens again.