Brushfire threatens homes in Mililani
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Despite the thick smoke, Brian Maxwell, a resident of Lanikuhana
Patio Homes, helps fight the brushfire with a garden hose.
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
A brushfire in Mililani jumped Kamehameha Highway, covered a neighborhood in smoke and threatened a housing development yesterday afternoon.
No one was seriously injured, but the fire rushing up the hill and the smoke wrapping itself over the rooftops was frightening, residents said.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Honolulu Fire Department Battalion Chief Manuel Neves said Mililani firefighters were sent out to a small fire along one side of Kamehameha Highway behind Mililani Uka Elementary School yesterday at 3:26 p.m.
Firefighters hosed down a hot spot after the Mililani brushfire came within several feet of the Lanikuhana Patio Homes.
Neighborhood children watch as the Honolulu Fire Department's Air One flies off after making a water drop on the brushfire in Mililani. The helicopter is equipped with a 125-gallon bucket.
"They were down there fighting the fire on this side," Neves said, standing on a pedestrian overpass and pointing to the blackened diamondhead side of Kamehameha Highway where crews were still hosing down hot spots on the charred road banks as the Air One helicopter dumped water from an 125-gallon bucket.
"And suddenly they looked behind them, and the fire had crossed the road."
A stiff wind had carried it to the 'ewa side and quickly pushed it up the hillside toward the rear of a row of houses at Lanikuhana Place, Neves said.
Resident Patricia Kia and friends Harold Villiarimo and Joseph Harvest said they were preparing for a friend's wedding when they noticed the flames near the road and the smoke snaking up through the neighborhood.
Other residents were in their back yards with garden hoses, wetting down lawns and exterior walls, coughing to clear their lungs of smoke.
"Then the fire started coming up," Kia said, "and everybody grabbed their kids and pets and bills, and ran out."
HFD Capt. Emmit Kane said that while firefighters rushed to help protect the homes, the call went out for more firefighters. Thirty-five of them, including HFD's Air One, joined the fight.
Emergency Medical Services paramedics rushed to the scene to help residents who were experiencing breathing problems after inhaling smoke. Police and O'ahu Civil Defense workers came in to direct traffic away from the blaze.
"There was so much smoke here," said police officer John Carreiro from the Wahiawa station, "you couldn't see the road."
The fire was brought under control within an hour, Kane said. Firefighters worked into the early evening, shooting streams of water onto charred trees while children leaning on scooters and bikes watched from each end of the pedestrian bridge over Kamehameha Highway.
Police and Civil Defense workers kept the road closed from Lanikuhana Avenue to Ka Uka Boulevard.
Five acres of grass and small trees along each side of Kamehameha were consumed, Kane said.
Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.
