Police closed off Puowaina Drive leading in and out of the cemetery at about 2 p.m. as firefighters stretched water hoses up and down the entire roadway.

Inside the park, some 300 hundred people shielded themselves from dense smoke wafting over the ridge and waited it out. Meanwhile, hundreds more visitors trying to enter the park — and not realizing what was happening — were turned away and told the park was closed.

As a bottleneck built up around the entrance, a long line of cars began to snake down the hillside.

"We're here to go into the cemetery," several drivers told a Honolulu police officer who was blocking the entrance with his squad car.

"You can't go in; there's a fire," replied a polite but obviously harried Officer John Bahng. "Maybe later, but you'll have to keep moving because you're blocking traffic."

The Honolulu Fire Department set up a command post near the school and an HFD helicopter pilot began airlifting 100 gallon buckets of water from a portable 3,000-gallon water container in the school's baseball field and dropped them on the fire line.

An Emergency Medical Services crew was brought into the cemetery in case anyone there might need medical assistance.

HFD spokesman Capt. Emmit Kane said 10 engine companies responded to the fire, which was contained at 2:53 p.m. He said there were no evacuations and no reported damage to any surrounding homes.

Six acres of land along the ridge were scorched before the fire was declared extinguished at 5:45 p.m., he said. The cause of the blaze remains unknown.

At around 3:35 p.m. authorities had begun letting people inside the park drive out of the cemetery. However, the park, which is normally open from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., remained closed for the day.

Cemetery director Gene Castagnetti praised the HFD and police efforts to control the fire and the crowds, and said he was grateful that the fire hadn't started 24 hours later than it did.

"They averted a crisis," he said. "If this had to happen I'm glad it happened today instead of Sunday when there would have been 2,500 Boy Scouts and their families in the cemetery."

Castagnetti said the cemetery would open again today as usual. Other than the inconvenience to those stranded and visitors who weren't able to deliver flowers to graves, the fire would not adversely affect the remainder of the planned Memorial Day Weekend activities, he said. Today, the Boy Scouts and others will place leis and flags on each grave.

Most of the people waiting inside and outside the cemetery seemed to take yesterday's inconvenience in stride.

"I don't blame them," said Lena Alensonorin who drove in from Wai'anae and sat patiently in her car outside the cemetery throughout much of the fire, only to be told the park would be closed for the day.

"They have to make sure the fire's out. If we can't get in today, we'll just come back tomorrow."

Greg Gouveia had arrived before the fire began to place flowers on his mother's grave. Once the blaze began, he was stuck inside the cemetery along with all the others.

"But no one was complaining; no one was worried. You just had to park your car and wait," said Gouveia, who decided the episode had a silver lining.

"I spent two hours with my mom. So, it was a good thing."