A Maui wildfire report shows communities how to avoid similar disasters

abcnews.go.com:

A report on the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century details steps communities can take to reduce the likelihood that grassland wildfires will turn into urban conflagrations

A new report on the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century details steps communities can take to reduce the likelihood that grassland wildfires will turn into urban conflagrations.

The report, from a nonprofit scientific research group backed by insurance companies, examined the ways an Aug. 8, 2023, wildfire destroyed the historic Maui town of Lahaina, killing 102 people.

The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety released the executive summary of the report Wednesday. The IBHS researchers found that a multifaceted approach to fire protection — including establishing fuel breaks around a town, using fire-resistant building materials and reducing flammable connections between homes such as wooden fences — can give firefighters valuable time to fight fires and even help stop the spread of flames through a community.

“It’s a layered issue. Everyone should work together,” said IBHS lead researcher and report author Faraz Hedayati, including government leaders, community groups and individual property owners.

“We can start by hardening homes on the edge of the community, so a fast-moving grass fire never gets the opportunity to become embers” that can ignite other fires, as happened in Lahaina, he said.

Grass fires grow quickly but typically only send embers a few feet in the air and a short distance along the ground, Hedayati said. Burning buildings, however, create large embers with a lot of buoyancy that can travel long distances, he said.

It was building embers, combined with high winds that were buffeting Maui the day of the fire, that