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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Wildfire still burning despite efforts of 60 firefighters

Advertiser Staff

More than 60 county, state and federal firefighters battled a wildfire that burned about 400 acres of brush in the Ka'ena Point area yesterday afternoon.

By 7:30 p.m., the fire had not been contained, but firefighting efforts were ended for the day, Fire Department spokesman Capt. Terry Seelig said. He said the fire, which was reported at about 3:20 p.m., was not threatening any property.

Seelig said an HFD helicopter will fly over the area at first light today to assess the situation.

He said most of the fire was on the Mokule'ia side of Ka'ena Point. Early on, Seelig said, there was some concern that the fire would spread to the Wai'anae side of the point.

"The location of the fire line at the top was over a mile from the satellite tracking station. So it wasn't a threat to that, although there were (firefighting) resources sent up there just to make sure," Seelig said.

Because of the size of the fire and the difficulty in getting to it, the fire department deployed both of its helicopters to do water drops, Seelig said. He said the fire was one of the largest so far this summer.