A Native Hawaiian cultural group voiced its concern yesterday after a fire scorched some 300 acres of the Makua Military Reservation on the Wai'anae Coast.

"The incident indicates that the Army continues to fail in its role as a steward of Makua Valley," said William Aila, a member of Hui Malama 'O Makua, dedicated to protecting and preserving the valley, which it considers sacred.

However, the Army said the fire, which began midday Wednesday and was contained shortly before 9 a.m. yesterday, caused no damage to any of the valley's cultural or natural features.

Army spokeswoman Capt. Juanita Chang said a team of Army environmental and cultural staff members inspected the site and reported that the blaze caused no harm to any of Makua Valley's dozens of archeological features or endangered species. The military also said no training was taking place when the blaze broke out.

"They have confirmed on initial assessment that there has been no damage to any cultural or natural resources and that no endangered plants of species had been harmed," Chang said.

The fire is the latest incident in an ongoing disagreement between area cultural groups and the military, which has used the valley to conduct live-fire training for more than half a century, arguing that it is vital to the defense of the nation.

In the past, several fires have been caused by mortar rounds and military "controlled burns," including a blaze in July of 2003 that charred more than half the 4,190-acre valley.

As a result of litigation between the military and cultural groups, after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the military was ordered to complete an environmental impact statement on the valley.

The EIS was part of a settlement that allowed the military to conduct a limited number of training exercises in the valley.

But according to a draft EIS that was released last month, the Army wants to increase its training in the valley to include the use of rockets, flares and inert missiles, and to train with air assaults, snipers, convoys and demolitions.

Aila said the latest fire raged through sections of the valley with known archeological features and endangered plants, such as the ma'o hauhele, a type of Hawaiian hibiscus indigenous to the area.

"There's no question that archeological sites got burned," Aila said. "The Army looks at those sites as a pile of rocks. So unless they blow up or scatter the pile of rocks, they don't think any damage has been done.

"The Hawaiian cultural practitioner looks at a fire going through a cultural site as doing damage to its mana, or its spiritual essence. We keep telling them that."

Chang said no deep damage resulted from the fire. Even a tarpaulin used to cover sacred Makua petroglyphs was not singed by the flames that passed over it, she said.

She stressed that there were no soldiers training in the valley when the fire started on Wednesday, and that the cause of the blaze had yet to be determined.

"The only people we had in the valley were some maintenance crews," she said. "And they were in the same area where the fire is suspected to have begun."

Chang said the Army has shown its stewardship of the Wai'anae Coast by the number of times it has allowed its helicopters to be used in area brushfires, such as the recent fires in Nanakuli Valley.

In Wednesday's Makua Valley fire, she said four military helicopters — assisted by a Honolulu Fire Department helicopter — made eight dozen fly-overs to drop more than 50,000 gallons of water on the flames.