Firefighters contain Waiawa blaze
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
The summer's largest brushfire kept dozens of firefighters busy yesterday near the Mililani Memorial Park.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
The fire began at about 1:15 p.m. along an access road that leads to the Waiawa Correctional Facility, said HFD Capt. Richard Soo. The blaze quickly spread and forced police to close the road that serves the prison and the Mililani Memorial Park.
The brushfire near Mililani Memorial Park forced police to close the road near the cemetery.
No homes or other property were threatened by the fire, and the flames did not jump the H-2 Freeway to the heavily populated Waipi'o-Gentry side of the freeway, Soo said.
The fire was reported contained at about 8:30 last night, but Soo said the fire was not extinguished. He said a fire crew would remain at the site throughout the night to monitor hot spots.
Fifteen fire units, including the department's Air One helicopter were sent to fight the fire. A military helicopter also was brought in to drop water on the flames.
Soo said two funerals that were scheduled for yesterday afternoon were postponed.
At one point, 20 cars carrying visitors to the cemetery had to be escorted out by police, he said.
Police also had to escort a shift of correctional officers to the prison facility at about 4 p.m., Soo said. Police then turned around and led a caravan of 20 cars filled with civilian workers out of the area.
"Neither Waiawa nor the cemetery was threatened, but because there's so much apparatus on (the road to the cemetery), our fire trucks going back and forth, it's a lot better just to not have the public on the road, too," Soo said.
The fire burned about 50 acres, he said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
"The causes are really quite obvious. Either an unintentional discarding of a lit material by a motorist, or intentional fire. It's either one or another," Soo said.
Last year, a brushfire in the same area closed the H-2 Freeway and burned more than 300 acres before it was extinguished.
More than 130 city and federal firefighters, along with helicopters from HFD, Army and Department of Land and Natural Resources, battled what officials called the biggest brush fire in two years in Central O'ahu.
Advertiser staff writer James Gonser contributed to this report.
