Firefighters focus on forest reserve
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
Military and fire department helicopters dumped tons of water on the remnants of a brushfire just inside the Honouliuli Forest Reserve in Kunia yesterday in an all-out effort to protect the more than 90 rare and endangered plants and animals that make their home in the area.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
"If those military choppers weren't here, it would be such a different story," said Pauline Sato, program director for the Nature Conservancy on O'ahu. "I'm just so grateful to them for helping out."
A Marine CH-52D "Super Stallion" helicopter empties its 660-gallon water bucket on an area scorched by Wednesday's brushfire.
Sato and five staff members worked side by side with about 50 county and federal firefighters yesterday trying to extinguish the brushfire that consumed about 220 acres of land, including portions of the habitat of the 'elepaio, an endangered Hawaiian forest bird.
By yesterday afternoon the fire was contained, said Honolulu Fire Department Battalion Chief Manny Neves.
Firefighters will assess the situation this morning and decide what further efforts need to be taken and whether to ask the Marine helicopters to return, according to HFD Capt. Kenison Tejada.
Yesterday, firefighters on the ground concentrated on cutting up large tree branches and roots and putting them into piles so the helicopters could drop buckets of water on them to completely extinguish the embers.
"It's not very windy up there now," Neves said. "It is a matter of getting to all the burning embers and the big tree trunks that are still burning ... getting that put out. But the fire is not running anywhere."
One fire department helicopter with a 100-gallon bucket and two Marine CH-52D "Super Stallion" helicopters with 660-gallon buckets made regular passes over the smoldering fire.
The Marine helicopters averaged about one bucket drop every 12 minutes, according to Maj. Peter Peterson, Marine Air Group 24 assistant operations office.
The fire started at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday about 200 yards from Kunia Road, across the street from the Hawaii Country Club and near a Del Monte Fresh Produce field. The country club served as command headquarters for the firefighting effort.
The Nature Conservancy manages a remote 3,692-acre forest in the Wai'anae Range preserve, between Pohakea Pass and Ekahanui, which it leases from Campbell Estate.
Although most of the affected area has non-native eucalyptus trees, Sato worried that the fire would spread to the upper elevations, where there is a significant native forest and some rare and endangered species.
Police arrested five boys from Waipahu yesterday near Del Monte Field No. 32 on suspicion of trespassing on private property.
Two of the boys, both 13, were sent to the Alder Street detention facility while the others, ages 14, 15 and 17, were booked and released to the custody of their parents.
The boys were running through the field away from the fire, but there's no evidence linking them to the fire, police said.
Staff writer Rod Ohiro contributed to this report. Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431
