Hawaii Officials Were Warned Years Ago That Maui’s Lahaina Faced High Wildfire Risk

necrophagist@lemm.ee to News@lemmy.world – 4 points –
archive.today
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Communities across the west are getting warned of the issue constantly.

Yet even here peoples reactions are incredibly defensive and guarded. People want to blame the state, or insurance companies.

But the reality is that wildfire risk is an emergent property of how communities of people manage their space. In Hawaii, lot sizes are small, houses are built very close, they are old, often single walled, and people rarely have garages so most store things around the outside of their house. Likewise, code is only loosely followed and basically unenforced.

Its absolutely tragic, and yet also incredibly unsurprising.