When longtime Battalion Chief Michael Hayashida retired from the Hawaiʻi Fire Department in December 2024, he didn’t hang up his gear for long. The very next day, he joined Kamehameha Schools, stepping into a new position designed to enhance wildfire resilience and community safety across ʻĀina Pauahi.

As KS’ first Wildfire Mitigation Specialist, Hayashida brings more than three decades of field experience and crisis response to a role that connects emergency management, land stewardship and long-term planning. Working with Hawai‘i’s four county fire departments and other community partners, his team assesses wildfire risks and develops safety and evacuation plans that make the lands and surrounding communities safer from fire.

He recently received his National Fire Protection Association Wildfire Mitigation Specialist certification, a nationally recognized credential that deepens his technical authority and qualifies him to write formal wildfire “prescriptions” for areas stewarded by KS.

The NFPA sets the national standard for fire codes and prevention. Having a certified wildfire mitigation specialist on staff ensures KS’ policies and practices align with those best-in-class standards, covering everything from vegetation management and defensible space to building materials and community evacuation planning.

His years in emergency response give him an instinctive sense for hazard detection — one that follows him wherever he goes.

“If I get to a [traffic] intersection, I’m looking at it through a completely different lens,” Hayashida said. “There was one time I responded to a gas station where the nozzle caught fire. I had to make the right call fast.”

That ability to see risk before it escalates is exactly what he now brings to KS. For him, mitigation isn’t just reactive. It’s about foresight.

“I try to project forward. The decisions I make now — how will they affect KS and our communities down the road?” Hayashida said.

Through his certification, Hayashida is helping Kamehameha Schools lead by example. His work supports KS’ commitment to pono stewardship and regenerative ʻāina practices, upholding a shared kuleana to safeguard Hawai‘i’s lands and communities for generations to come.

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