Nine staff members from the University of Hawaii-Manoa Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit have been called up as temporary federal firefighters to help fight the Kupukupu fire in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. UH staffers join battle
to contain Big Isle wildfireBy Treena Shapiro and Rosemarie Bernardo
tshapiro@starbulletin.com
rbernardo@starbulletin.comPeter Dacalio III, Brando Figueroa, Patrick Galapir, Sean Grossman, Paul Keliihoomalu, Russell Rosario and Randy Wentworth are all wildlife/botanical assistants stationed at the park.
Two Black Hawk helicopters from Schofield Barracks' 25th Infantry Division are expected to assist federal and local firefighters today by dropping 660-gallon buckets filled with sea water to extinguish flare-ups.
Since May 17 a total of 3,660 acres of land have been burned at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Though the blaze has not spread in the last three days, resource adviser Tim Tunison said: "This is not the time for complacency. ... We cannot afford to lose another thousand acres."
Firefighters plan to extend the existing control line around the fire. Crew members have also laid miles of fire hoses to the blaze from trucks stationed at Chain of Craters Road. Crew members continue to monitor weather changes where a rise in temperature, wind speed and humidity increase the chances of flare-ups.
Ignited by the lava flow, the 19-day Kupukupu fire spread rapidly because of dry swordferns, false staghorn ferns and tall ohia trees. Park officials said the fire poses a threat to a rain forest that is home to ohia lehua and hapuu and rare woodlands of lama.
The Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit staff members usually spend their days reintroducing endangered plant species into the wild, eradicating alien plants and maintaining enclosures that keep pigs and goats away from endangered plants.
Sky Mullins, wilderness conservation supervisor, and Don Yokoyama, a field project technician, also took leave from their projects restoring ecosystems.
The staff members became eligible to be called up as federal firefighters by completing rigorous physical testing and training.
David Duffy, UH botany professor and leader of the unit, said, "Alongside the other firefighters, the PCSU staffers have been putting in 12-hour shifts, trying to keep the lava from igniting fires that would burn into areas of native vegetation."
