Posted on: Saturday, June 25, 2005
Brushfire gives Wai'alae Iki residents scare
By Loren Moreno
Advertiser Staff Writer
It was only a five-acre brushfire, but it got within 75 feet of Wai'alae Iki homes and frightened residents in the East O'ahu neighborhood.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser Eight Honolulu Fire Department trucks and a helicopter responded to the fire around 1:36 p.m. No homes were evacuated, but officials warned residents to prepare to leave if conditions worsened.
Fire officials said no homes were seriously threatened.
Many residents drenched roofs as a precaution, while others left their homes and parked on nearby streets to await the all-clear.
Sim said she saw flames near the wall in her backyard shortly before fire crews arrived. "I started to move valuables out of the house into my car in case I needed to just drive away," she said.
Rod Saunders, a 50-year-old resident of Laukahi Street, waited near his home with his two children, wife and mother-in-law. His mother-in-law, Alice Char, was babysitting and reported heavy smoke in the home.
For residents, "It was more the smoke that was the problem than the flames," said fire department spokesman Capt. Kenison Tejada.
Tejada said some residents reported hearing an explosion before the fire began, but he was unable to confirm those accounts.
By about 3 p.m., crews had the fire contained despite high winds.
Firefighters initially could not reach the fire from behind Kalani High School, so crews moved to the Kalani Valley neighborhood on the east side of the fire, where crews began to use the backyards of neighborhood homes to battle the blaze.
Reach Loren Moreno at 535-2455 or lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.
Amanda Sim, 17, was in her home on Kumakani Loop watching a DVD around 2 p.m. "I smelled smoke, and first I thought it was mosquito repellent," she said.
The Honolulu Fire Department helicopter dropped water on remnants of a brushfire that threatened homes along the west side of the Wai'alae Iki neighborhood along Kumukani Loop.
"I knew it was a fire and I got worried," she said.
