This year's brushfire season has been so ferocious that even Leeward Coast residents — who've become accustomed to the blazes over the years — are angry and frustrated.

"People have had the attitude: Oh, the Wai'anae Coast always burns," said Patty Teruya, a long-time Nanakuli resident. "They say: 'Oh, the kids always do that.'

"That attitude has got to stop," she said. "This is dangerous. People's homes and lives are endangered, and it is terrifying."

More than 630 brushfires have burned across O'ahu this year, many of them deliberately set, most of them, as in past years, scorching the Leeward Coast. Just 569 fires occurred in all of 2004.

Firefighters have scrambled this summer as multiple brushfires along the Leeward Coast drew much of their manpower.

On July 5, four brushfires started in four hours in the area, forcing 50 percent of the department's resources there. Fire officials said that if the department had faced one more major fire — such as a high-rise fire — it would have had to call in off-duty personnel.

On July 11, arsonists started six brushfires on the Leeward Coast, closing roads and forcing about one-quarter of the department's resources into the area. The fires burned more than 100 acres and required about 150 firefighters to shuttle from valley to valley.

Teruya, who serves on the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board, watched fearfully this month as the brush on a mountainside burned toward her house before firefighters, working in a haze of smoke and heat, were able to extinguish it.

'FRUSTRATION, ANGER'

Many of those Leeward fires — this year and in the past — have burned for days at a time while other suspicious fires are ignited nearby, keeping firefighters moving from one blaze to another. Some of the fires may have been the result of carelessness.

"The community's response has been frustration and anger — frustration that brushfires continue to happen and that people continue to be either that malicious or that careless, and anger because in the past, people haven't been arrested," said Cynthia Rezentes, neighborhood board chairwoman.

The lack of arrests has begun to change in the past few weeks. Police have picked up four people in connection with brushfires: one adult and three teens.

One juvenile is facing adjudication in Family Court, said Police Capt. Frank Fujii, department spokesman. The other suspects were released pending further investigation.

Police have said they made no brushfire-related arrests in 2004.

Rezentes hopes the arrests this year will serve as a message to those who start fires.

"The message is that they are going to find someone and they are going to make arrests," she said.

Rezentes and Teruya said they also hope the arrests mean that people on the Leeward Coast are starting to keep an eye out and report the arsonists to authorities.

FEWER FIRES LATELY

Police Lt. Mark Hibbs said that does not necessarily seem to be the case: Although the public did assist the police in identifying those who have been arrested, they did so only after the officers began investigating and asking questions.

Honolulu police put out a CrimeStoppers bulletin July 12 asking for the public's help in chasing down those responsible for the slew of Leeward brushfires, but by yesterday afternoon they had yet to receive a single phone call, said Police Sgt. Kim Capllonch.

Nonetheless, the fires have slowed over the past couple of weeks.

"We can't say that was because of the arrests," said Capt. Kenison Tejada, Fire Department spokesman. "We'd like to say that, but there are just too many factors. For one thing, it has been a little wetter out there."

The break has been appreciated by a department strapped for resources.

The Nanakuli fire alone cost the Fire Department nearly $10,000 in overtime, Tejada said. A fire near Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park caused $10,000 in damage by burning a department truck. The costs continue to mount as the number of fires increase.

"Already," Tejada said, "we've surpassed the number we had in all of last year, and we've moved ahead of the pace set in 2003, when we had 982 fires in the year."

'PRISON? OH, YEAH'

Brushfires are not only a Leeward Coast problem. Authorities are asking for the public's help in connection with a series of brushfires on the North Shore. Capllonch issued a CrimeStoppers appeal yesterday to help find suspects in 12 brushfires from Wahiawa to Sunset Beach from June 24 to July 20.

Teruya said she hopes that as the fire starters are caught, they are punished harshly.

"Prison?" she said. "Oh, yeah. This should be a felony."

"Or," said Albert H. Silva, vice chairman of the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board, "a different kind of punishment. Make them do conservation work so they'll have a feel for the losses and a better understanding of our environment."

The 76-year-old Kea'au man grazes cattle, and he said he hopes people will consider using cattle in open areas as a means of clearing brush.

"One year the fire went right up to where my cattle graze," he said, "right up to the fence line. But it didn't cross over."

It did, he said, burn down his fence posts. He replaced them with metal pipe.

BANNING FIREWORKS

Wai'anae resident and former Secret Service agent Frank Slocum, who also is a member of the neighborhood board, said he hopes that a way will be found to control the fires but wasn't hopeful about the judicial process.

"Arrested and released — it's all a joke," he said. "Released pending investigation and that's usually the end of it. Our only hope is that juvenile court takes this seriously, and we'll probably never know that because they are juveniles. The names can't be released in the newspapers. People'd be screaming privacy, privacy, privacy — wouldn't they?"

Banning fireworks, which are linked to a number of brushfires every year, might be a good start toward decreasing the blazes and lessening the load on police and firefighters, he suggested.

The City Council is considering a resolution that would ask the state Legislature for the authority to more stringently regulate fireworks.

Slocum said he thought Wai'anae Coast firefighters deserved a few kudos.

"We are very fortunate to have a very good fire crew out here," he said. "Whether they are helping someone out of the ocean or fighting a fire or getting a cat out of a tree, they are really pretty good."