Not surprisingly, Hawaiian officials ignored warnings about the high risk for wildfires on Maui almost 10 years ago. But legacy media outlets still blame climate change.

Nearly a decade before a wildfire destroyed the coastal Maui town of Lahaina this week, killing at least 80 people, a report by Hawaiian fire researchers warned that the area was at extremely high risk of burning.   

Another report, in 2020, tied fires to winds from a passing hurricane—similar to the ones that fanned the Lahaina blaze. 

And the state’s electric utility had for years worried about wildfire risk in the area. It even flew drones to monitor conditions. 

Yet local authorities said in the aftermath of this week’s devastation that though they knew wildfires were becoming more frequent in Hawaii, they weren’t prepared for one to roar through Lahaina.

The Wall Street Journal also points out that Hawaiian fire officials outlined a wildfire prevention plan as early as 2014, but local politicos sat on the advice and did nothing. Just last week, there was an investigation opened to determine if arson was the cause of brush fires that broke out on three other Hawaiian islands too. As it turns out, last year 3 suspects were arrested setting fires around Maui.

While probably wishful thinking, Maui residents deserve the truth and Hawaiian politicos should not try to use the occasion to avoid responsibility, much less use the disaster to pitch climate change as the cause of the wildfires when the facts clearly show it is not.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay