Nā leo o Papakōlea Firewise is a team of Hawaiian Homesteaders from the Papakōlea, Kewalo, and Kalāwahine. Our mission is to make our homesteads a safe and thriving place to live by reducing the risk of wildfire destruction, activating our community with aloha and an eye toward our future generations.
On Saturday, December 20th, 2025, we gathered at Lincoln Elementary for a day full of learning, sharing connecting, and contributing, to making our community more fire safe and emergency prepared. We are grateful for all those who attend and who helped make the event possible. Here's a quick recap of the event:
Links to Websites for Organizations Who Tabled:
Takeaways from NLOP Firewise Trivia with Closest Neighbor Teams:
Know thy closest neighbors! Take time to get to know those who live closest to you as they will be the folks you'll have to work with to address an emergency.
Plug into NLOP Firewise work days + NLOP meetings to strengthen community, work on collectively safety and resilience.
Takeaways fromEmergency Preparedness Panel:
Take time to be prepared.
Get roads as passable as possible.
You're not stuck in traffic, you ARE the traffic.
Don't wait for someone to tell you to go, go early.
Takeaways from CPR Training with Firefighter Kamehalani Ortiz-->
Steps: Check the scene; shake and shout; call 911; and push hard, push fast.
Doing something is better than doing nothing!
Mouth to mouth no longer required.
Takeaways from Community Resilience & Emergency Evacuation Planning-->
Resilience is our ability to respond to an emergency or change and come out of it stronger than before. We as a community are resilient AND building/ being resilient takes consistent effort in multiple areas.
Exit and entry points in community are limited. Continue to report areas you identify as a potential threat to the NLOP Firewise team as we prepare to work collaboratively on the issue with DHHL in 2026.
Photos courtesy of Kāheawai Media & NLOP Firewise Team
MAHALO DHHL FOR YOUR FIRE MITIGATION WORK IN OUR WILD LANDS!
The Department of Hawaiian Homelands since July has been making major investments in helping manage our wildlands. Investing by cutting back overgrown trees around our kahawai and taking care of over grown brush on the Kapahu St. hill that Kewalo and Papakōlea share where DHHL had previously done an erosion mitigation project on and which caught on fire new years 2024. We remind community members that the material used on the hill for erosion mitigation is flammable, heightening our fire risks.
Have a concern you liked the Department to Address? Contact them at dhhlcomplaints@hawaii.gov and learn more about their enforcement divsion using the link below.
Written by Tyler Sonnemaker
Published Februray 24, 2025
Our dear hoa aloha 'āina and journalist, Tyler Sonnemaker of Kaheāwai Media, has done it again! Check out how he wove our fire safety story and our Hawai'i Wildfire Management Organization Papakōlea Region Hazard Assessment into a user friendly and accessible learning space.