WAILUKU, Maui — Investigators from the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife have found the discarded cigarette butt that ignited a fire that burned for nine days in the Kula Forest Reserve.

The fire raged within a 2,300-acre area on the slopes of Haleakala, consuming pine and sandalwood trees and rare native plants, while costing the state more than $340,000 in firefighting expenses, according to John Cumming, Maui branch manager for DOFAW.

The cigarette butt found Tuesday was dropped by an unidentified hiker on the Upper Waiohuli Trail at the 6,000- to 7,000-foot elevation, about three miles from the Polipoli State Park cabin and camping area.

The fire, which drew from a heavy fuel source and unusually low humidity, was reported the afternoon of Jan. 23. It took a week for officials to declare the blaze fully contained after firefighters, county public works staff and personnel from construction firms worked feverishly to bulldoze fire breaks or clear the ground by hand.

This week's rain helped douse the flames, but many hot spots remain, Cumming said.

A dozen National Park Service firefighters from the Big Island and 10 state forestry personnel from O'ahu and Kaua'i completed their work yesterday and were to return home, leaving 20 Maui forestry workers to mop up.

In addition to the steep terrain and dense forest that made access difficult, Cumming said the biggest firefighting challenge was the lack of water. Water tankers from the county and the construction firm Goodfellow Brothers continually hauled water to staging areas where helicopters refilled their buckets. Firefighting efforts often were thwarted by afternoon clouds on the mountainside that limited helicopter flights and restricted ground operations because of the inability to spot the fire from above.

Although the fire burned within a 2,300-acre area, Cumming estimated that 1,700 to 1,800 acres actually were consumed by the blaze. Several large pockets of forest land, some as large as 400 acres, were spared, he said.

Also spared was the cabin at Polipoli State Park, which overlaps the forest reserve. A Firewise program project last year cleared trees and brush from around the cabin and saved the structure, Cumming said, as flames approached to the edge of the cleared area. The national Firewise program involves communities and agencies in planning to prevent wildland fires.

Lost were large tracts of pine trees reaching as high as 120 feet that were planted in the 1930s and 1950s to stabilize the landscape. Also burned were protected enclosures of sandalwood trees and rare geranium arboreum, or nohoanu, a native red-flowering plant that grows only at high altitudes.

Polipoli State Park is expected to remain closed for some time due to the danger posed by falling trees and hidden hot spots smoldering underground, Cumming said. "One of our main concerns is people, out of curiosity, going up there and walking around, not staying on the trails," he said.

State forestry officials are considering allowing logging of dead, dying and fallen trees and perhaps replanting the burned areas with 'ohi'a and koa to restore the native forest, he said.

As of Tuesday, the DOFAW has spent $342,435 on fighting the fire. That amount does not include the costs incurred by Maui County or the National Park Service.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.