Updated at 7:14 p.m., Sunday, November 26, 2006
Big Island brush fire chars 1,500 acres
Advertiser Staff
Fifty people, including 29 Hawai'i County firefighters, worked late into the night battling a brush fire that had already charred about 1,500 acres near the intersection of Mauna Kea Access and Saddle roads on the Big Island.
Three helicopters were being used to drop water on the blaze in addition to small 4-by-4 trucks.
Three bulldozers had managed to encircle the fire with a single-blade fire break and efforts continued into the night to finish a two-blade cut.
Fire officials said the fire was started by embers from a campfire that were blown into surrounding open grasslands by gusty winds, which also cased the fire to spread rapidly.
The fire occurred on property owned by the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.
