so i think we ll still find out the full extent of the damage over the many days, weeks and months to come. and in terms of how the fires were able to spread, are there factors specific to hawaii that made them spread so quickly and become so deadly? you know, hawaii is not traditionally perceived through the lens of visitors and others as an area that s prone to wildfires. i think we commonly think of hurricanes or sea level rise, even tsunamis, as a factor of a disaster threat and wildfire s just simply not on the radar. that said, we do know wildfire activity in hawaii has increased about fourfold in recent decades. so it was a risk, particularly to those who work in wildfire in hawaii. and so i think what makes it unique is that the flammable vegetation there is largely introduced as non native species. but the behaviour of the fire, other than being fuelled by heavy winds,
death and destruction, but out of it came heroes and hope. sophie long, bbc news, maui. live now to dr douglas kelley from the uk centre for ecology and hydrology and who was the lead analyst for a un report last year, predicting a global increase in wildfire activity. welcome to the programme. we will talk about hawaii are specifically in a moment but if we could talk about that report first of all, you talked about this huge increase in the number of extreme fires. some of the number of extreme fires. some of the figures, up 30% by 2050 and then by the end of the century up 50%, talk us through what it is down to. we talk about climate change a lot but it isn tjust that, is it? climate change does play a large role in that and some of the big heat we have had recently wouldn t have been possible without climate
july we have had a tropical storm and in august we had a hurricane which is pretty strong, so this is something that we always keep watching, this hurricane developed following el nino.- this hurricane developed following el nino. there was about 9096 following el nino. there was about 9096 less following el nino. there was about 9096 less rainfall i following el nino. there was about 9096 less rainfall in i about 90% less rainfall in hawaii recently than in central areas, there really dry conditions. what s behind that? to those numbers strike you as out of the ordinary yes, those numbers are really alarming. t numbers are really alarming. i think that of course, the climate is changing, so it is different from before, and we do see more and more wildfire activity, temperature rise, sealevel rise, more hurricane activity, more drought, so they are all linked together. irate are all linked together. we have also
i think that, of course, the climate is changing, so that it s different from before, and we do see more and more wildfire activity, temperature rise, sea level rise, we have more hurricane activity, we have more drought, so they are all linked together. we ve also seen these kinds of devastating wildfires hitting other parts of the globe. hitting the western united states. how vulnerable was away previously to wildfires? was it considered a risk zone? how vulnerable was hawaii previously to wildfires? usually, wildfires do not receive much attention in hawaii because the inaudible land area is very small.