Even when homes aren't damaged in a wildfire, residents can still be affected severely by wildfire from effects you may not normally think of. The latest scare in Kaʻū depleted people's ability to access drinking water.
"The Hawaii Fire Department continued Tuesday battling a Ka‘u brush fire outside Naalehu that destroyed a home in Green Sands subdivision.
The fire was about 80 percent contained as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Hawaii County Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira.
'We still have just one structure that was lost,' he said. 'And, fortunately, even that one structure lost was a vacant structure. So, the Red Cross is currently not in the position of having to provide shelter for anyone.'
However, about 24 of the homes in the neighborhood were on county-metered water and were fed by exposed plastic pipes that were melted by the fire.
'So, we have a number of residents down there without water,' he said.