In August 2023, catastrophic wildfires burnt their way through the Hawaiian island of Maui, killing more than 100 people (several people are still ‘missing’), though the initial estimated death toll was much higher. Most of the deaths were in the town of Lahaina, located on the west coast. The cause of the wildfires was attributed to several factors – weather conditions on the island at the time, Hurricane Dora moving to the south of the island, electrical sparks from downed power lines, and pre-existing dry conditions due to climate change. In fact, the fires were caused by a combination of all these factors, illustrating a good example of the use of the ‘Swiss cheese model’ in explaining why a disaster occurs.
One way to look at the vulnerability of an area to a hazard is through the Swiss cheese model (Figure 1, below). This states that a disaster occurs because a series of factors and processes coincide. A disaster can be linked to a single physical event, but there is also a range of weaknesses in human contexts (the ‘holes’) that influence the hazard and increase vulnerability. A hazard becomes a disaster when several holes line up (a trajectory of accident opportunity), which creates the conditions for loss of life, property and livelihood.
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