The wildfires in the U.S. state of Hawaii have become the deadliest fires in over a century of the country's history, killing over a hundred.

Surrounded by the waters of the Pacific Ocean, wildfires were once rare on the Hawaiian Islands. But in recent decades, they've become more common and extreme. When the August blazes tore through the communities, firefighters did not even have enough water to tackle the fire. Why?

Let's look beyond the news headlines for signs that foreshadowed today's tragedy, as well as a powerful but long-overlooked factor behind Hawaii's wildfires: colonialism.

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