About the Kula Fire

August 8, 2023

In early August 2023, a series of wildfires occurred in the state of Hawaiʻi. These unprecedented, devastating fires grew quickly due to strong winds from a nearby Category 4 hurricane and extremely dry conditions. The Kula Fire, located at the Wildland-Urban Interface in Upper Kula, started around 11:00 AM after witnesses saw a large Eucalyptus tree fall and take out a power line, which then blew a transformer. This caused a powerful spark to hit the ground and start a fire on Kualaono Place. Over the course of the day, this fire grew to a footprint of more than 300 acres. The fire took place between 2,400 ft and 3,400 ft in elevation along deeply entrenched gulch known as Pōhakuokalā. This fire was fueled by approximately 100 acres of dense Australian Black Wattle forest, which filled in most of the open areas surrounding homes and in the gulch, causing the fire to continue burning for weeks, and severely altering the soil structure. In the end, 23 homes were lost completely, many more damaged, and dozens uninhabitable due to smoke damage. The Kula Fire is the second most destructive fire in the last 100 years of Hawaiʻi’s history.

The fire left a community devastated, traumatized, and many displaced, but not broken.