Governor Josh Green, M.D.

University of Hawaiʻi (UH) researchers have been working to address a wide array of health and environmental issues caused by the deadly wildfire that destroyed Lahaina.

Since fall 2023, more than 30 UH researchers have been involved in 12 National Science Foundation (NSF) Rapid Response Research projects to address air and water quality, public health, ecosystem resilience and community evacuation responses. NSF is providing $2.1 million to fund the projects that are being coordinated across the 10-campus UH System by the UH Mānoa Water Resources Research Center (WRRC).

WRRC is drawing on its previous experience with the Red Hill water crisis to quickly convene faculty, staff and students to explore collaborative research approaches. The coordination is being led by WRRC Director Tom Giambelluca and Mia Comeros, WRRC Pacific Water Resilience and Security Program lead.

A comprehensive health study of 679 Maui residents is examining the immediate exposures to environmental hazards and will repeat the tests annually over the next five to 10 years, and possibly longer, to link the exposures to long-term health outcomes. Two-thirds of the participants resided in Lahaina at the time of the fires and the others either worked in Lahaina,
or lived or worked in fire-affected areas in Kula.

Principal investigators are UH Mānoa Professor Ruben Juarez of the UH Economic Research Organization and Professor Alika Maunakea from the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM).

A five-year, $3.8-million study funded by the National Institutes of Health is looking into the government’s response to the Lahaina wildfire and its impact on residents. The study will look at how well the response addressed the physical and mental health needs of affected residents and if it made any pre-existing health disparities worse for Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Filipino and Mexican communities.

The study is being led by Alex Ortega, dean of the UH Mānoa Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health, and Keaweʻaimoku Kaholokula, chair of the JABSOM Department
of Native Hawaiian Health.

UH economists are also regularly analyzing a variety of economic impacts on Maui and the state caused by the Lahaina fire.