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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, August 11, 2005

Workers were installing gate; 200 acres burned

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Central O'ahu Writer

Honolulu firefighters moved a hose over a barbed wire fence as they pulled back yesterday from a wind-driven brushfire in Makakilo that had shifted in their direction. The fire started mauka of what is commonly known as Old Farrington Highway near Honokai Hale.

Richard Ambo | The Honolulu Advertiser

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MAKAKILO — Welders installing a gate and fencing started a fire yesterday that burned more than 200 acres of brush on Campbell Estate property leased by Rocker G Livestock Ranch.

The Honolulu Fire Department dedicated 19 companies and 85 to 90 personnel to the fire, which began at 1:39 p.m. and extended into the night. The priority was to keep the fire from spreading over a ridge toward homes about a half-mile away on the Makakilo hillside.

"The wind is in our favor," HFD Battalion Chief Roland Harvest said shortly before 3 p.m. as the wind blew smoke away from Makakilo. Harvest's strategy was to surround the fire immediately by setting up water lines to protect the ridge leading to Makakilo and also on the other side to prevent it from spreading west.

HFD Capt. Kenison Tejada said the fire was "knocked down" and units were still working to establish the perimeter as darkness approached.

Makakilo neighbors Kent Hirano and Jennifer Garvida, who live behind the ridge on Kohupono Street, watered down brush in the gulch as a precaution, but did not feel threatened.

"I saw the flames but it wasn't that close so we weren't that worried yet," Garvida said.

Hirano said there's a lot of brush and with the area's dry summers the threat is always there. "But you can't worry about it (other than to take precautions)," he added.

As a precaution, Makakilo residents on Nohona Street keep the area below their homes clear of brush, creating a good firebreak, Tejada said.

Yesterday's fire was across Farrington Highway from last weekend's brushfire that burned 400 acres and threatened the Honokai Hale subdivision.

Unlike that earlier fire, which was deliberately set, yesterday's fire was accidental, said Theresia McMurdo, Estate of James Campbell spokeswoman.

Campbell Estate, which leases 3,800 acres to Rocker G Livestock Ranch owner Bud Gibson, granted a license to a company, Hoku Pili, to harvest rock on the property, according to McMurdo. Hoku Pili contracted Leilani Construction to put up a gate and fencing, McMurdo said.

"People welding a gate started the fire and it started running up quickly," Harvest said.

Because of last weekend's fire, Campbell Estate insisted the contractor take every precaution to prevent another. "It was really an accident," McMurdo said, adding the contractor did water the ground around the welding job.

Gibson said his livestock on higher ground appeared safe. But the loss of grazing land to the fire is "money going down the drain," he said.