Brush fires a
‘people problem’

An arsonist has made for
a busy month, the fire chief says

By Jim Witty
Star-Bulletin

Dry, hot days, plenty of dead grass and arsonists taking advantage of the situation have made the 1997 fire season a bad one for Leeward Oahu.

"We have a people problem out there," said Honolulu Fire Chief Anthony Lopez Jr. "We don't know who it is, but there's someone driving around out there setting them."

Lopez said more grass has grown during recent rainy years, and has also contributed to a fire season that has hit Waianae, Nanakuli, Waipahu and Ewa Beach especially hard.

Last week, a stubborn brush fire, which was apparently set deliberately, destroyed a trailer home on Hakimo Road and gutted more than a dozen cars on the same property. Another home was lost and four damaged in a large brush fire in Makakilo two weeks before.

The Waianae station has responded to 35 brush fires so far this month, which is "quite a lot higher than normal," a fire department official there said.

On the worst of days, the island's firefighting resources are stretched precariously thin, said Lopez. More than one-third of Oahu's firefighting units -- 22 companies -- responded to the Hakimo Road blaze that spread from the dry brush of Lualualei military reservation to the slopes of the Waianae Mountains.

"When you do that, you shortchange somebody else," said Lopez.

Units from as far away as east Honolulu and Kailua helped to quell that blaze.

"When it gets close to homes, you have to bring in a whole lot of resources," said acting Waianae fire Capt. Ken Kong.

And fighting fires in Leeward Oahu is no walk in the park.

"It's all uneven terrain," noted Kong. "You don't know what you're running into. And we deal with heat exhaustion, dehydration and strained muscles. There's no warmup time for us. We get the call and we go after it right away."

Minor injuries are common. "You get a lot of twisted ankles, twisted knees from trying to run through the rocks," said Waianae Engine 26 Capt. Stephen Humphrey. "Breathing the smoke can be hazardous too."

And the potential for serious injury or death is always there.

"A fire is going to (eventually) come around and hurt somebody," Lopez cautioned. "If you had a brush fire and a firefighter died, that's serious."

A maliciously set fire that damages property or causes injury is a major crime.

"It's a criminal act, a felony," Lopez said.

When the fire department suspects arson, they notify the police and try to find the culprit, he said. No one has been apprehended in connection with the recent fires.

"You have your own suspicions, but you don't actually see someone doing it," Kong noted.

Brush fire season on Oahu generally runs from May through September.

"It's dry," said Lopez. "The potential is there.

"All we can say is be careful."