WAI'ANAE — Honolulu firefighters yesterday continued their summer-long efforts to extinguish brushfires on numerous fronts, adding a tenacious 55-acre Wai'anae Valley blaze to fires in progress in Nanakuli and Waikele.

The brushfire along a remote section of Wai'anae Valley Road began shortly after 6 a.m. and threatened four homes in the valley. Some 75 firefighters from 16 engine companies fought the Wai'anae Valley brushfire throughout the day, said Honolulu Fire Department Capt. Emmit Kane.

Flames came to within about 50 feet of the home where Muriel Ioane has lived for 34 years.

"You could see the flames coming right up toward the house," Ioane said, noting that the blaze sent her goat and hunting dogs into a frenzy. "It was moving fast."

Ioane's anxiety was eased after firefighters arrived and began dousing columns of fire between the dry Kaupuni Stream bed and her house.

The fire began near Kane'ilio Street and moved down the valley toward the four homes. While Ioane said she had no idea how the fire started, Melvin Joseph, who lives a short distance up the road and whose home sits within choking distance of all the smoke and ashes, had a theory.

"Somebody's setting these fires," said Joseph, as he leaned on the hood of pickup truck and watched the flurry of firefighters attacking the ridge.

"It's kids lighting these flares and throwing them in the bushes. It's too much. They should know better. If I ever catch 'em, I'm tying 'em up to that tree there. I'm sick of it."

Joseph's wife, Mary, said she and her quarter horse, Brownie Girl, were spooked by the flames.

"When I see a fire like this, I'm pretty scared," she said, as the wild-eyed horse focused its attention on the commotion. "All that dry grass, and the wind is blowing right this way. It's frightening."

Veteran firefighter and battalion chief Rolland Harvest had his hands full coordinating engines and firefighters on three radios while dealing with a platoon shift.

"Our major priority has been to protect those four houses," Harvest said. "They're secure right now.

"Our second priority was to not allow the fire to jump this road. If it had jumped, it would have created a whole lot of other problems. So we stopped that.

"And our third priority was to keep the fire from going over the ridge. So we've secured that edge."

To keep the fire from spreading upward and over the mountain, firefighters extended hose lines from the four houses and along the base of the ridge.

Because there are just two fire hydrants along this remote stretch of Wai'anae Valley Road, Harvest placed four water tankers, hauling a total of 8,000 gallons of water, along the ridge base.

"I've got two tankers rotating by the houses and two in place right here. So one supplies the water and when it's empty, another one moves in and the other fills up at the hydrant. We just keep them rotating."

Harvest also called in the Air One helicopter to make water drops.

He said it would take firefighters from six to eight hours to put out the fire, provided that the winds didn't ignite another hot spot.

Other hot spots did ignite in the valley, and another flare-up as far away a Makua, but firefighters managed to douse or contain them.

Meanwhile, Kane said, the department was still dealing with outbreaks within the mammoth 3,000-acre Nanakuli brushfire that has plagued firefighters since Sunday, and a brushfire that broke out in Waikele on Wednesday.

"We've got a lot of companies dedicated to three incidents," he said. "We haven't considered the Nanakuli brushfire extinguished yet. We're cautiously optimistic at this point. But fires could start popping up again in there. Bigger fires generate a lot of heat in the earth.

"And the unglamorous side of fighting a big fire such as that one is to get in there with picks and shovels and chain saws and brush-beaters and put it out

"It's just a lot of hard work."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.