COURTESY OF DENISE LAITINEN Trash under the house and vegetation too close to the house drew attention in this Firewise inspection in Waikoloa last year. Inspectors were community leader Pete Hoffmann, left, Fire Chief Darryl Oliveira and former Civil Defense head Troy Kindred.

Community honored
for being ‘firewise’

Work to improve safety in
West Hawaii earns national
praise

KOHALA BY THE SEA, Hawaii » West Hawaii resident Fabio Franzo has 300 feet of 13Ú4-inch-diameter fire hose at his house, the same size professional firefighters use.

Several of Franzo's neighbors in Kohala by the Sea, north of Kawaihae, also have the same size hose, but for those who do not, the community has installed additional hoses in public areas, he said.

The community has encouraged its 33 homeowners to plant vegetation like fire-resistant ice plant and native naupaka, plans to cut down fire-prone kiawe trees and has opened an escape route from the community, which previously had only one entrance.

For these and other "firewise" measures, Kohala by the Sea will receive formal recognition by the national Firewise CommunitiesÚUSA program today in ceremonies at the community.

That will be the 50th community award in the nation, said Denise Laitinen, the Maui-based coordinator for the Hawaii Firewise program.

The award gives the community priority in obtaining more federal money, such as the $50,000 it wants to cut kiawe trees growing in a gulch in the community.

Kohala by the Sea is one of four communities in the arid area north of Kailua-Kona that in the last two years joined the Firewise program, functioning for two decades on the mainland. The others are Puako, Waikoloa and Puuanahulu.

Kohala by the Sea resident Sharon Cislo said she helped start the program there because of threats like 60-mph winds carrying fire through fountain grass.

Nine miles to the south, Waikoloa community leader Pete Hoffmann said fountain grass was 6 feet high there when the community cut a firebreak.

With 7,000 people in Waikoloa, getting agreement on "firewise" measures has been slower than in Kohala by the Sea, but Hoffmann helped obtain a $84,900 grant for fire safety. Since then he was elected a county councilman.

With only one entrance road, Waikoloa is "the biggest cul-de-sac on the island," Hoffmann said. One goal is to create a one-lane, 3-mile, dirt escape route on the makai edge of the town at a cost of $50,000.

Besides grants directly to these communities, a federal grant of $134,000 was made in 2003-2004 to West Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, consisting of state and local agencies, Laitinen said. All of the grants have to be matched by local cash or work contributions.

Tapping in to the areawide grant, Puako residents bulldozed a firebreak through kiawe trees around their community, Laitinen said. At Puuanahulu, three generations of local ranching families cut firebreaks by hand, she said.

Residents there also put up nearly two miles of fencing that allowed placing cattle around the community to chew down fuel grasses.

Besides community efforts, families can create a safe zone around their house by cutting back bushes that create "ladders" for flames to climb from grass to a house, Laitinen said.