Firefighting in paradise

By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

VOLCANO, Hawai'i — The view is great, and there aren't any snakes to worry about, but battling a stubborn wildfire amid crumbling beds of jagged 'a'a lava is no vacation for the 80 federal firefighters sent to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park this week from the Mainland.

Mainland and Hawai'i firefighters are battling the fire in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. The fire ignited May 17 and has been a challenge to contain. U.S. Forest Service

More than 3,660 acres in the Holei Pali section of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park have burned since the fire was ignited May 17 by a lava flow from the Kilauea eruption. Although it isn't the largest or most ferocious fire to hit the 217,000-acre park, it is proving to be one of the most persistent, officials said.

While the wildfire has not spread to new ground in the past five days, less than half of the burned area has been contained, and it will be at least another week before is it brought under control, said Jack Minassian, fire management officer for Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.

Meanwhile, fire crews continue to work 12 to 14 hours a day. They are transported down the Chain of Craters Road to approximately the 2,000-foot level, where they hike, loaded with gear, for up to three miles on the Kalapana Trail to reach the fire. Sometimes they are ferried in by helicopters that must set down in small, uneven landing zones.

As dusk nears, the crews head back up the trail and return to the staging area to clean and prepare their tools for the next day's work.

After dinner, the firefighters bunk at the Army's Kilauea Military Camp, a recreation area near the park headquarters, then roll out of bed again at 5 a.m.

Their first day off won't come until they've worked 14 straight days.

Minassian said the firefighters face multiple dangers.

The burn is downwind from Kilauea's east rift eruptions. Cinder, pumice and soot blanket the ground. In some places, the layers of volcanic material are several feet thick.

One misstep and a firefighter can fall through to the waist.

Sudden flare-ups are another worry. There are several layers of vegetation to provide fuel, and an area where a fire is thought to be out can flare up in an instant.

"It might re-burn two of three times, so the crews have to be on the alert at all times," Minassian said.

Underneath the vegetation are the hidden hazards of unstable lava rock and lava tubes. An Arizona crew leader on Wednesday fell into a lava tube that was 8 feet deep, but managed to climb out a little shaken but uninjured, Minassian said.

Despite the exhausting and sometimes dangerous job, the hot shots are relishing the chance to work in Hawai'i.

"This fire is hot, but the scenery is great," said Lemuel Black of Pleasant Valley, Ariz., who fights fires six months of the year for the U.S. Forest Service and works as a carpenter the rest of the time.

Black, an Arapaho Indian originally from Wyoming, said he has never fought a fire in such humid conditions with such a beautiful backdrop. From above the Holei Pali, Black and the others have a sweeping vista of the terrain as it slopes down to the Pacific.

Jennifer Richards, 24, of Dalton, Calif., is one of eight female hot shots working the Kupukupu blaze. She is using her second fire season with the Forest Service to pay for graduate studies in physiology.

"We're hungry and tired, but we're learning about the culture," said Richards, who wants to become a doctor.

Each Mainland firefighting team has been assigned a local park worker to help identify native plants and interpret local terms such as "mauka" and "makai."

Thirteen-year Forest Service firefighting veteran Darin Fischer, 34, of Prescott, Ariz., said he's just glad there aren't any snakes here and he hasn't come across any scorpions yet.

Fischer and Brit Rosso, who heads up the National Park Service crew from Arrowhead, Calif., said one of the biggest challenges has been the weather, especially the humidity.

"It can be raining in morning and burning by early afternoon ... ," said Rosso, 40. "It doesn't matter how much water you drink, it pours out of your body during the day."

This is his second tour of duty at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. Rosso was here in 1987 to fight the Kipuka Nene blaze that blackened nearly 15,000 acres.

Both Rosso and Fischer said they are amazed at the local hospitality and the quality of food and lodging, something lacking in most of their assignments. "They really take care of us," Fischer said.

While there is no substitute in the field for manual labor, technology is lending a hand in the firefighting effort.

Large, detailed color maps showing the burned area are updated daily using global positioning satellite data and a geographic information system. And as the lava continues to spill down Holei Pali, national park personnel and scientists at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory plot the flow's path and project possible scenarios.

Park staff familiar with the area's natural resources advise fire managers of the lava's proximity to "flashy fuels" such as grasses, ferns and other plants that could readily ignite and carry the fire northwest.

Although no homes or other structures are threatened by the wildfire, there is much concern for tracts of native woodland and forest that are home to 'ohi'a and lama trees, hapu'u tree ferns, maile and kolea, rare birds such as the 'apapane and 'amakihi honeycreepers and the 'io, or Hawaiian hawk, as well as bats, bugs and the Kamehameha and Blackburn butterflies.

The region also is rich with archaeological features left by ancient Hawaiians who occupied villages along the coast.

Big Island firefighter Andrea Kaawaloa said the work is hard but the rewards are great because she is helping to save these remnants of her culture from destruction. Kaawaloa represents the fourth-generation of her family to work at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.

Her grandmother is kupuna Minnie Kaawaloa, who managed the park's Waha'ula Visitor Center before it was destroyed by lava in 1989 by the same eruption that sparked this fire.

Don Shearer of Maui's Windward Aviation is part of a handful of skilled civilian and Army helicopter pilots who are conducting water drops over the Kupukupu fire. They also fly reconnaissance and transport firefighters.

It's tricky business. The pilots must navigate among 120-foot-tall 'ohi'a trees while slinging a 100-gallon bucket of water on a 50-foot steel cable in stiff wind. Two Army Blackhawk helicopters in use at the park carry buckets that are six times bigger than that.

Shearer also does work in connection with the Navy cleanup of ordnance on Kaho'olawe and for police departments, but he described this assignment as special.

"This land is so pristine and weed-free, it would be a real shame to lose it," he said during a brief lunch break Thursday.

With hot and dry weather forecast for the coming week, Minassian could not guarantee that wouldn't happen.

Reach Hugh Clark at hclark@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.