Nearly 13 months after the Lahaina fire, roughly all residential debris has been cleared from the Wahikuli and Mala neighborhoods in the historic Maui town.

Despite security concerns from some residents, county officials say that they will reopen the public right of way to everyone starting at noon Tuesday.

“We discovered we don’t actually have legal justification for restricting the public roads in that area, so the checkpoints will be reallocated and the area will be open,” county public affairs director Mahina Martin said last week at a disaster recovery community update meeting at the Lahaina Civic Center.

She explained that the health and safety concerns had reached such low levels that the county could no longer restrict public access on public roads.

The county has done a few things to address the safety concerns that community members voiced at previous meetings, Martin said, when a resident requested that the reopening of these neighborhoods be reconsidered.

She said the Maui Police Department will increase patrols in the area. Police Lt. Audra Sellers is also expected to talk about how to set up a neighborhood watch program during the next disaster recovery meeting on Sept. 18.

“We really encourage the neighborhoods of Wahikuli to connect with your neighbors, and make sure that you all keep an eye out for each other,” Martin said, adding the concern was the opening of the checkpoints could lead to curious onlookers coming around places “where they don’t belong, doing things they shouldn’t be doing.”

“We are going to rely on each other, on all of you helping each other,” she said. “But we will have a little bit more heightened presence with the Maui Police Department in that area.”

MPD spokesperson Alana Pico said Friday that since other areas have reopened, police have increased patrols due to traffic violations such as speeding.

“There were unauthorized individuals in the burn zone who had to be removed by MPD,” she said, though no arrests were made.

MPD has two active beats in the burn zone and will respond to an incident 100% of the time, according to Pico.

The opening includes zones 1C, 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, 3A, 3B, 3C, 4A, 4B and 4C, according to Maui Emergency Management Agency.

The Army Corps of Engineers reported that by the first week of August, it had cleared 99% of residential debris and 51% of commercial debris. 

As of Aug. 2, the county declared all water in the public water system in Lahaina as safe to drink for the first time since the destructive Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.