Last year at this time there were 537 brushfires compared with 298 as of 9:30 p.m. yesterday, according to the Honolulu Fire Department. From midnight Monday night to midnight Tuesday night, HFD responded to 14 brushfires. Twelve more started between midnight Tuesday night and 9:30 p.m. yesterday.

Costales said that Wai'anae, Nanakuli, Makaha and Makakilo are high-risk areas. Hawai'i Kai to St. Louis Heights is starting to look dry also, he said.

Costales said the vegetation that built up after the wet winter is beginning to dry, especially on the Leeward side. He predicted the situation will worsen.

"I don't think we've peaked yet. August and September is the hottest time we see in Hawai'i."

An official with the National Weather Service said dry conditions are expected until November, and he echoed Costales' statements that a rainy winter left O'ahu lush with vegetation, which, as it dries out, will become the perfect fuel for fire.

Anthony Ramelb, a control operator at the Hawaiian Electric Co.'s Wai'anae power station and a Makakilo homeowner, said the station is protected from brushfires by a sprinkler system, fire lanes and a large fire break. Plus, the brush is kept short and away from vulnerable areas, he said.

As for his house in Makakilo, Ramelb said he hasn't seen a significant fire threaten in years. He said HFD has been able to handle whatever fires have popped up.

"I'm not scared for my house," he said. "The brushfires that I've seen, HFD has responded really quick; they (fires) haven't gotten to the size they have before."

The Honolulu Fire Department was at a low-level alert yesterday because 25 percent of its firefighters were committed to calls.

The Level 1 alert was issued at 11 a.m. when firefighters were committed to two brushfires — in Kunia and Kalaeloa — its hazardous materials unit checking on an acid spill in Waipi'o, some units involved in training and other units at routine alarms.

The biggest blaze yesterday was in Kunia, where more than 50 acres of brush had burned by late last night, said HFD Capt. Emmit Kane. The fire started at 10:30 a.m. about 200 yards from Kunia Road, across the street from the Hawai'i Country Club.

Kane said 50 firefighters, 25 from HFD and 25 with the federal government, fought the fire with the support of two air units.

The Nature Conservancy said last night that the fire was threatening endangered native Hawaiian wildlife in its Honouliuli Preserve in the Wai'anae Mountains. The fire was burning on the lower slopes of the central portion of the 3,692 acre preserve, between Pohakea Pass and Ekahanui, the Nature Conservancy said.

Although most of the affected area has nonnative eucalyptus trees, conservancy staff worried the fire would spread to the upper elevations, where there are a significant native forest and some rare and endangered species.

"We're very concerned it may spread into the habitat for the O'ahu 'elepaio, an endangered Hawaiian forest bird," said Pauline Sato, the Conservancy's O'ahu program director.

In another blaze, a Wahiawa family of seven was left homeless yesterday. The fire, at 264 California Ave. was caused by a child playing with a cigarette lighter in a second story apartment, said HFD Capt. Kenison Tejada.

Firefighters had the blaze under control within 7 minutes, Tejada said. Damage was estimated at $100,000 to the upstairs unit and $10,000 to the unit below.

Leeward units fought all but a few of the 14 brushfires from midnight Tuesday to midnight yesterday. Additionally, there were twelve more brushfires from midnight to 9:30 p.m. yesterday, from Kalaeloa to Lualualei.