Updated at 11:50 a.m., Friday, July 26, 2002
Wai'anae Valley brushfire blackens up to 1,500 acres
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By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| A firefighter hoses down the makai edge of a brushfire that blackened as many as 1,500 acres in Wai'anae Valley yesterday. More than 70 firefighters battled the blaze and kept it from reaching homes and a forest reserve.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser |
More than 70 firefighters yesterday stopped a raging Wai'anae Valley brushfire just short of farms and homes and a forest preserve of rare Hawaiian plants. A battalion chief viewed the area by helicopter this morning and noted only isolated hot spots that officials expect will burn out on their own. Estimates of the area burned ranged from about 850 acres to more than 1,500 acres, but the extent was hard to calculate because of the steep terrain, officials said.
Spooked livestock pastured in the leased state agricultural farmlots trotted down to the makai fence lines, and a few frightened children at a summer camp in the valley had their tears wiped away, but there was no financial loss and most Wai'anae kama'aina took the fire in stride.
The only cooked beef was in the 80 plate lunches that chef Danny Luang whipped up at Barbecue Kai Drive-in when the Red Cross stopped by for takeout to deliver to crews returning from the fire lines.
Fire Department spokesman Capt. Richard Soo said it was the biggest valley blaze he could remember, but some residents said they'd seen bigger.
How often does some part of the valley go up in smoke?
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser "Whenever it's like this," Allen Kaihue shrugged, gesturing toward the sky.
With variable winds swirling at 25 mph, a lot of brush providing fuel, and the valley sides sweeping up into cliffs and gorges, the conditions for a bad blaze, foresters and firefighters agreed, were perfect.
Kaihue four years ago had to evacuate the area along with the rest of the people living on a street named Haleahi, Hawaiian for "house of fire." Homes there are bordered by tinder-dry golden grass 3 feet deep among the kiawe trees.
Tom Kaiapoepoe, a retired city trash collector who lives on Kamaile Unu Street, said one of the many fires he has seen during 20 years in the valley reached the ocean end of the ridge and turned the corner into Makaha.
Crews directed by incident commander Battalion Chief Lionel Camara stopped yesterday's blaze at another ridge line halfway up the valley, near the spot in the hills above Angel's Junk Yard where the second major fire broke out yesterday morning.
"It's an eerie, ghostly scene," Camara said, looking at the broad, blackened slope surrounded by vertical canyons in which white smoke swirled.
The first of two fires broke out, state officials said, at 8:23 p.m. Wednesday near the end of Wai'anae Valley Road right after someone was seen coming from a pasture area there. Ten to 20 acres burned before it was battled to a standstill by nine fire companies at 2:30 a.m., Wai'anae Station Fire Capt. James Oshiro said.
"The sky was red out there," and it scared some of the 75 youngsters at the Child Evangelism Fellowship summer camp, Pastor John Dekle said, "but it gave us an opportunity to trust God." Police kept in touch to make sure campers could evacuate if necessary, he said.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser At 7 a.m. Oshiro and his men were called out again, this time to see a much larger blaze roaring up the hillsides from a point a quarter mile behind the junkyard on the Makaha side of the valley road.
Officials called in 21 Honolulu companies and three federal companies, fewer than the 29 companies and 100 personnel used to stop a similar fire in the valley in 1998.
Fire Department helicopter pilot Lincoln Ishii dipped a rubber bucket into a 3000-gallon pool rigged at the park area and raced into the smoke 60 feet off the ground to drop 100-gallon loads on hot spots where ground crews drew their lines. Ishii said he'd fought three fires of similar size in the valley in the past five years, but none which reached into the green forest preserve.
Air One was joined by a $700-an-hour chopper chartered by the state from Cherry Helicopters, and two Army UH-60 Black Hawks from the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks.
The Black Hawks went to the ocean for their 500-gallon loads rather than blast the park area with the wash from their rotor blades.
An acrid haze spilled over the top of the ridge into Makaha Valley, and fire officials warned any residents with breathing problems to take the normal precautions of staying indoors or traveling to another area.
Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.
Fire Department helicopter, Air One, was joined by a $700-an-hour chopper chartered by the state from Cherry Helicopters, and two Army UH-60 Black Hawks from the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks.
Fire Department helicopter pilot Lincoln Ishii dipped a rubber bucket into a 3000-gallon pool rigged at the park area and raced into the smoke 60 feet off the ground to drop 100-gallon loads on hot spots where ground crews drew their lines
