Kauai Fire Chief Ka'aina Hull Wins National Wildfire Mitigation Award

The International Association of Fire Chiefs presented Kauaʻi Planning Director Kaʻaina Hull with the 2026 National Wildfire Mitigation Award at the Wildland Urban-Interface Conference in Reno, Nevada on Wednesday, honoring his work building Hawaiʻi's first Wildland-Urban Interface ordinance for the plantation camp communities that line the island's most fire-exposed western coastline.

The award, co-sponsored by the National Association of State Foresters, the National Fire Protection Association, and the USDA Forest Service alongside the IAFC, cited Hull's policy-focused approach and his collaborative engagement with multiple government agencies, nonprofit partners, and community members to embed wildfire safety directly into Kauaʻi's zoning and development code through Bill No. 2961. Mayor Derek S.K. Kawakami said Hull "stepped beyond the traditional role of planning and brought people together to address one of the most urgent challenges facing our island."

The ordinance, effective last September for new development in Plantation Camp Districts, covers Kaumakani Village, Kaumakani Avenue, Numila, Kaʻāwanui, and Pākalā Camp. Hull framed the ambition plainly: calibrating the built environment "to live with fire," a phrase that describes the actual condition returning to the leeward coast as trade winds intensify this dry season.

Three zones carry the sharpest risk right now. The Kekaha-to-Waimea corridor sits in the drought-prone shadow of Waimea valley's eastern flank, the historic origin point of the island's largest fires; invasive grasses turn every wet-season growth surge into volatile summer fuel along this stretch. Above it, Kokee Road and Waimea Canyon Drive are the only two roads serving the Kokee plateau, meaning any fire that compromises either corridor leaves residents with no alternate egress. Within the plantation camps themselves, the dense, aging housing stock that predated Bill 2961 still faces years of retrofit work before it meets the ordinance's full intent.

That ordinance sets the minimum standard every high-risk property should meet before peak fire weather closes in. A required five-foot noncombustible zone around all structures eliminates the ember-catching mulch, wood furniture, and stored materials nearest to walls and foundations. A managed 30-foot defensible space, with regulated vegetation spacing, limbed-up trees, and cleared dead plant matter, slows fire spread before it reaches the structure. Covered metal gutters and ember-resistant vents close two of the most common ignition pathways when high winds push fire across the West Side.

The 30-day window before conditions tighten is the most actionable time residents of Kaumakani, Numila, Kaʻāwanui, and the Kekaha-Kokee Road corridor have. Clear the five-foot zone of every flammable item. Cut grasses within 30 feet, limb trees to six feet off the ground, and remove dead vegetation. Add covered metal gutters and check that all attic and crawl-space vents carry ember-resistant screening. Then map the evacuation route: identify the nearest county emergency shelter before a Red Flag Warning is issued, not after, and keep a go-bag stocked with medications, documents, and water. Hull's ordinance addresses what gets built from this point forward. What happens on properties that already exist is the work that determines whether Wednesday's recognition in Reno means anything when fire moves down the ridge toward Kekaha this summer.