WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Northwest Wildland Fire Protection Agreement (Northwest Compact) is welcoming Hawaii as its newest member, rendering the compact 11 agencies strong. Eight wildfire compacts operate across North America, allowing the U.S. and Canadian provinces the ability to share information, technology, personnel and other essential resources across borders. Compacts are a critical foundation for effective and rapid interagency wildfire response.
Hawaii’s decision to join the Northwest Compact will result in a marked increase in firefighting resources throughout the state. Compacts significantly amplify mitigation and suppression capacity for wildfires that might otherwise overwhelm the capabilities of a single siloed agency. Joining will also allow Hawaii-based wildland firefighters to gain experience by assisting with firefighting efforts on the North American continent. Wildfire has become increasingly problematic for the State of Hawaii in recent years, coinciding with trends in its climate affecting temperatures, rainfall patterns and extreme weather events – – like the unusually high winds that fueled the catastrophic nature of the 2023 wildfire in Maui’s Lahaina and Upcountry areas.
The Northwest Compact is one of eight forest firefighting Compacts currently operating throughout the United States and Canadian Provinces. Within each compact, firefighting resources and personnel can be rapidly deployed to fellow members to respond to wildfires, significantly increasing response capacity and circumventing a myriad of red-tape, bureaucratic processes that may otherwise generate significant lags in response time. Other member agencies of the Northwest Compact include the states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana as well as the Canadian Provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and the Yukon and Northwest Territories.