Brushfire burns 1,500 acres above Yokohama Bay
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
More than 80 firefighters worked throughout Friday night and all day yesterday to extinguish a Leeward brushfire that burned 1,500 acres, encroached on two state forest reserves and threatened an Air Force satellite facility.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
The blaze was brought under control about 7:15 p.m. yesterday, said Honolulu Fire Captain Emmit A. Kane. Firefighters remained ready to return to the hills above Yokohama Bay if the blaze reignited.
A fire along the Leeward Coast encroached on two state forest reserves before being brought under control last night. The Air Force's Ka'ena Point tracking station was threatened but not damaged.
The fire started started just before 8 p.m. Friday in Keawa'ula State Park, above Yokohama Bay, Kane said.
At first the fire burned mostly along the mauka side Farrington Highway, east of Ka'ena Point Satellite Tracking Station. But because the area was so dry, it was spreading rapidly.
The first fire company immediately called for backup, Kane said. Eventually the contingent of Honolulu firefighters grew to 20 companies and was joined by federal firefighters and state Department of Land and Natural Resources forestry officials.
They worked throughout the night Friday to keep the blaze under control, looking forward to the daylight hours that would bring air support from the HFD helicopter.
But, Kane said, as yesterday dawned the winds changed and grew brisk, pushing the fire closer to the Air Force's tracking station and climbing the hills toward the two state forest reserves, Mokule'ia and Kuaokala.
Firefighters worked furiously, dragging hoses from tankers, carrying in backpacks of water and beating the flames down with "brush beaters" — long poles with flat ends like rug beaters.
O'ahu Civil Defense blocked off Farrington Highway and Honolulu Police Officers evacuated campers and homeless people from the beach. Red Cross volunteers carted in meals, drinking water and ice for the firefighters.
The Army and the Air National Guard pitched in, Kane said, bringing in Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters that worked throughout the day, dipping 500 gallon buckets into Yokohama Bay and dumping the water on the smoldering hillsides.
The Air Force's satellite dishes and support buildings were saved, but up to 20 acres of forest reserve land was burned, Kane said.
If the fire remained under control overnight, forestry officials were to begin assessing damage to indigenous or endangered species this morning.
Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.
