HONOLULU: A fast-moving Hawaii brush fire fueled by fierce winds forced the evacuation of about 50 Maui residents on the opposite side of the same island where a devastating blaze killed over 100 people two years ago.
The fire started Sunday in a sparsely populated area with land set aside for Native Hawaiians.
Here’s what we know about the fire so far:
Fire size now estimated at 330 acres
The Kahikinui was initially estimated at 500 acres (202 hectares), but aerial surveys overnight put the estimate at about 330 acres (134 hectares), Maui’s fire department said. The fire is 85 percent contained.
The remote, challenging terrain made it difficult to estimate the fire’s size, the department said in a statement. A police drone showed hot spots, but none flared overnight.
No injuries or structural damage was reported. Weather conditions were mostly sunny Monday with a high of 67 degrees Fahrenheit (19 degrees Celsius) and east winds of about 15 mph (24 kph), gusting up to about 25 mph (40 kph).
The US Drought Monitor says all of Maui is in drought.
Authorities conducted door-to-door evacuations and part of a highway remains closed.
Flashbacks to an earlier fire
Warren Aganos was on his family’s Hawaiian Homelands lot preparing to go on a Father’s Day hunt when a neighbor called him around 9 a.m. telling him a fire had broken out.
“I hung up and raced out, I didn’t let her finish,” said Aganos, who has been slowly rebuilding the three structures his family lost in a 2016 brush fire that burned over 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) in the same area. “I was thinking about the last one,” he said. “It was super emotional.”
Aganos said he rushed in his truck to make sure first responders knew where the community’s water storage tanks were before navigating Kahikinui’s dirt roads down to the highway where he could see smoke billowing over the hillside. The community lacks electrical and water infrastructure, and some of the roads are only navigable by four-wheel drive.
State and local leaders signed emergency proclamations so that the Hawaii National Guard can help and counties can access assistance.
What is the region like?
Kahikinui is less populated and developed than Lahaina, which was the Hawaiian Kingdom’s capital in the 1800s and is now a popular tourist destination. Kahikinui was used for cattle ranching for many years and is near a state forest reserve.
The fire department sent engines, tankers and a helicopter to battle the blaze. Three bulldozers cut firebreaks in the lower part of the community, Desiree Graham, co-chair of Kahikinui’s firewise committee, said.
The area has 104 Hawaiian homeland lots of 10 to 20 acres (4 to 8 hectares) each. About 40 lots have homes, including 15 with full-time residents. Some lots have more than one home, Graham said.
A state agency issues lot leases under a program Congress created in 1921 to help Native Hawaiians become economically self-sufficient. Those with at least 50 percent Hawaiian blood quantum can apply for a 99-year lease for $1 a year.
Fire devastated Lahaina nearly two years ago
Maui is still recovering from the massive inferno that enveloped Lahaina in August 2023.
That fire was the deadliest in the US in more than a century. It destroyed thousands of properties and caused an estimated $5.5 billion in damage. University of Hawaii researchers say unemployment and poverty rose after the blaze.
The Kahikinui fire may seem small compared to continental US fires, but it’s significant for an island of 735 square miles (1,903 square kilometers).
Other Western fires
Crews also are battling wildfires in the Pacific Northwest, around the Great Basin, in California and the Rockies.
National Weather Service forecasters and federal land managers have warned in recent weeks that fire danger is escalating in many places amid rising daytime temperatures and single-digit humidity levels.
The risks won’t start to wane — at least in the southwestern US — until the monsoon starts to kick in, bringing much-needed rain. In southern New Mexico, a wildfire ballooned to nearly 30 square miles (78 square kilometers) over the weekend in the Gila National Forest.
The flames forced the evacuations of homes that dot the mountains north of Silver City, blocked access to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument and prompted air quality warnings as smoke drifted north. Campgrounds and access points to the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail also were closed.
In Oregon, several dozen homes in Wasco County were destroyed by a fire that started last Wednesday. Some evacuations remained, but fire managers said Monday that the threat to structures had diminished.
So far this year, the nation has seen double the number of fires as last year but the acreage is less, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. More than 2,700 wildland firefighters and support personnel were assigned to 15 large wildfires across the country.
Fast-moving brush fire on Hawaii’s Maui island evacuates about 50 people. No structures have burned
https://arab.news/52ztp
Fast-moving brush fire on Hawaii’s Maui island evacuates about 50 people. No structures have burned
- Officials said it was 85 percent contained as of Monday morning
‘Cake not hate’ campaign spreads love amid far-right rhetoric in UK
- Joshua Harris, 12, who is autistic, hands out cakes at mosques
- His father, Dan, tells Arab News they are welcomed by Muslims
LONDON: A 12-year-old boy, who is autistic and non-speaking, is visiting mosques across the country and handing out cakes to promote love and solidarity amid the rise of far-right rhetoric in the UK.
Joshua Harris, or “Joshie-Man” as he is known to his social media fans, has handed out hundreds of his baked treats to congregations in London, Leicester, Luton, Birmingham, and his home city of Peterborough.
The “Cake not hate” campaign came to life after an Islamophobic attack on a mosque in Peterborough in October this year.
The perpetrator, Alexander Hooper, 57, entered Masjid Darassalaam and abused worshipers preparing for the Fajr prayer, and physically assaulted a female police officer who arrived on the scene. Hooper later pleaded guilty to aggravated harassment and assaulting an emergency worker.
Harris’ father, Dan, is the founder of global charity Neurodiversity in Business, and told Arab News that soon after the attack, they both visited the mosque with cakes that Joshie-Man had baked and distributed them to worshipers.
“We gave them to the imam and said we want you to know that this guy (Hooper) doesn’t represent Peterborough nor the great British public,” Harris said.
“So they really warmly received that and then they gave us contact details for the other five or six mosques in Peterborough.”
Harris said he received backlash and threats from far-right individuals after posting videos of Joshie-Man handing out his cakes. And this prompted him to think of how their racism is affecting Muslims.
“If me as a white middle-class guy in a nice part of the world could get this kind of hate from the far right, how bad must it be for a Muslim, a female Muslim, an immigrant Muslim, or a Muslim who doesn’t have English as their first language?
“They must be incredibly intimidated,” he said.
Harris said the Muslims he met told him that they do not go out at night or let their children walk home from school alone for fear of being attacked. They are scared of abuse if they wear traditional dress or speak a foreign language.
“This is not the Britain I want to bequeath to my child. I don’t want him growing up in a Britain which is really divided and I’ve always been proud of Britain being a really tolerant place which is very respectful,” he said.
Harris and his son also visited a mosque in Luton, the town where far-right activist and anti-Islam campaigner Tommy Robinson grew up.
He said it was “really profound” to meet Muslim children who said they had been attacked and shouted at by racists and Islamophobes.
Harris and his son are due to embark on a northern tour later this month to visit 12 mosques in three days. On Christmas Day, they will help cook meals for people who are lonely or need help at a Peterborough mosque, which will open its doors as a part of an outreach event.
Harris said the Muslims he met have “conducted themselves with a lot of humility and kindness. That message has been lost because the far right are now saying that Islam is something to be feared.”
He added that Joshie-Man loves baking and distributing his cakes: “You only have to look at the video to see how he’s jumping with joy when he goes into these places.”
Harris is no stranger to far-right hate and had previously received abuse after speaking out against groups painting St. George’s cross and Union Jack flags on zebra crossings and roundabouts across the UK over the summer after anti-migrant protests.
“I put a post out on social media around how the far right in the UK need to stop painting over zebra crossings.
“Because there are a number of people in our community, the visually impaired, learning disabled, non-speaking autistic or even the colorblind, who find it harder to use zebra crossings if they have the England flags painted on them.
“Joshie certainly did,” Harris said.
“The post was innocuous but the far right went a bit crazy on me and then started targeting me, calling Joshie a retard, talking about eugenics, and saying that the government is wasting money on his education.”
Harris said the comments were “quite hurtful” and he found it “absolutely abhorrent that Reform UK are targeting disabled children.”
“They are some of the most vulnerable in our society. The far right are going after them and they are whipping up a fury in people who think the disabled kids are here for the perks.
“Families that I’ve met and who live in councils controlled by Reform UK are telling me that since they’ve come to power, their interactions have been all around how do we remove your legally enshrined rights.”
Supporting children with neurodiversity is a cause close to Harris’ heart.
After seeing how using a computer with augmentative and alternative communication software transformed the way his son was able to communicate, Harris has led a campaign that raises money to provide these aids to families who cannot afford them.
He has been to several countries, including Mexico, the US, and Brazil, giving away computers to children who are autistic and non-speaking. The next stop for father and son is Dubai, where they will be giving away 100 computers in January.
“We accept the fact that this is a drop in the ocean given how many kids need them, but if we create a bit of noise and get this on the radar that that’s a big win that people can continue with locally,” he said.
“The Middle East is such an important part of our world and over the next 50 to 100 years, it’s going to be absolutely key. Some of the countries, governments, and royal families have actually got a really forward-looking and innovative outlook on this topic.
“So I felt like this is our first chance to put a footprint in the Middle East and God willing, we will achieve some success in new relationships and go to other countries later on.”
