Trading Michigan’s ice for Hawaii’s fire

Deployment part of an interstate mutualaid agreement

Andrew Zaccagnini is spending most of this month in Hawaii but it’s no vacation. He’s an emergency management specialist with Oakland County and he’s working on the long-term response to Hawaii’s disastrous 2023 wildfires.

Hawaii is paying for Zaccagnini’s deployment as part of a nationwide mutual-aid agreement. He’ll be there through Jan. 27. He’s the fourth Michigan resident to be deployed to help Hawaii’s recovery.

An Aug. 8 wildfire killed 100 people, destroyed more than 2,000 buildings and displaced 12,000 people on the island of Maui, the Associated Press has reported. It will cost an estimated $5.5 billion to replace structures

destroyed or damaged by the fire. Another wildfire in August burned about 20 homes in Kula, a town on the slopes of Haleakala volcano, according to the AP.

Zaccagnini is a planning section chief and one of the leaders for Oakland County’s incident management team. He’s certified by the International Association of Emergency Managers. In Hawaii, he’s working with Maui’s emergency management agency to create an incident management team.

Last week he shared a sunset photo on LinkedIn and a note:

“It’s humbling to work alongside the teams in Maui, many of whom have been here since this began in August and are working tirelessly to move recovery forward,” he wrote. “I’m honored to be able to make a small impact on such a large response and recovery process.”

The wildfires, which destroyed 80% of the town of Lahaina, have Hawaiian lawmakers looking to prevent wildfires and fight outbreaks.

It’s still unclear what caused the fire in Lahaina, with a population of 12,700 people according to the U.S. Census Bureau, but experts speculate a combination of drought, non-native fireprone grasses and heavy winds from Hurricane Dora helped the flames spread quickly.

“So often we feel helpless as we watch devastating natural disasters unfold like the fires that wreaked such havoc on Maui last year,” said Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter. “So, we stand ready and are grateful to be able to lend a hand and some recovery expertise when a community has suffered such losses.”

Hawaii used the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a nationwide mutual-aid agreement among states, to ask for help. This is one way to get specialists to a disaster area. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands use EMAC.

Hawaii’s proposed strategies: a fire prevention awareness campaign, insurance incentives for wildfire-safe structures and maintaining firefighting aircraft and other equipment specifically to fight wildfires and more funding for Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat, asked lawmakers for $425 million to pay for Maui cleanup and emergency housing, and millions more to reduce statewide wildfire risk.

Lawmakers will also be looking at new rules for vacation rentals. Thousands of Lahaina residents made homeless by the fires continue living in hotels because of a housing shortage — but tourists are renting condos at the same time, according to the AP. Many wildfire evacuees left Maui because they couldn’t find a place to live.