PHOTOS: Kanehoa Community Clears the Way to Being ‘Firewise’

Members of the Kanehoa community spent their Saturday making their community safer against the threat of wildfires.

The Hawai’i Wildfire Management’s Wildfire Prep Day provided communities across the island, state, and nation to participate in a day of preparation in honor of Wildfire Preparedness Month.

In total, two dozen Kanehoa community members joined in to remove an entire large dumpster with haole koa, also known as ekoa. The plant is known to be highly flammable and has the potential to create embers that can spark new fires, both near and far away.

Kanehoa is located off of Kawaihae Road, halfway between Kawaihae and Waimea.

The effort was sprouted from a Firewise Community Hazard Assessment that HWMO and Hawai’i County Fire Department conducted for the Kanehoa subdivision as part of the process of becoming Firewise certified.

“All of us at Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization are very proud of the work the Kanehoa community has contributed towards reducing the wildfire threat in their area and we hope more communities will follow their lead,” Pablo Akira Beimler, HWMO Community Outreach Coordinator, said in an e-mail.

Beimler says the efforts greatly reduced the wildfire threat by ensuring the roads can act as a fuel break to slow the spread of wildfire.

Photo credit: Pablo Beimler/Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization.

Photo credit: Pablo Beimler/Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization.

Photo credit: Pablo Beimler/Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization.

Photo credit: Pablo Beimler/Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization.

Photo credit: Pablo Beimler/Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization.

Photo credit: Pablo Beimler/Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization.

Photo credit: Pablo Beimler/Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization.

Photo credit: Pablo Beimler/Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization.

Photo credit: Pablo Beimler/Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization.

Photo credit: Pablo Beimler/Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization.

Photo credit: Pablo Beimler/Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization.

Photo credit: Pablo Beimler/Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization.

Photo credit: Pablo Beimler/Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization.

Photo credit: Pablo Beimler/Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization.

Photo credit: Pablo Beimler/Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization.