Posted on: Friday, June 7, 2002

Army helicopters join fire battle at volcano

By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

VOLCANO, Hawai'i — Two Army Blackhawk helicopters from O'ahu helped a federal firefighting force divide the labor yesterday in quelling a fire that has burned out of control since May 17.

The two Army units from Schofield took over the mountainside fight, freeing up 144 federal forest and National Park firefighters and four rented civilian helicopters to concentrate on the makai end of the blaze.

Jack Minassian, fire commander, said the military aircraft will make a big difference in controlling the fire set off by lava weeks ago.

The perimeter of the fire did not expand beyond 3,660 acres, but botanists and archaeologists worried that dry and windy conditions may spread the blaze.

Minassian said it may be another week before the fire is contained.

The Army helicopter units, which stayed overnight at Kilauea Military Camp, are to return to the fire lines today to make 660-gallon water drops — about six times the capacity of the water buckets used by civilian helicopters from Maui and the Big Island.

The contingent battling the blaze on the pali area between Holei and Pulama includes 80 firefighters, known as "hot shots," from California and Arizona.