Brush fires hit 3 sites
on Oahu and Molokai
Firefighters on Oahu and Molokai battled three brush fires yesterday, an indication that the summer brush fire season is upon us, officials said.
"The best thing that could help us is a good rain," said fire Capt. Emmit Kane.
Maui firefighters helped Molokai firefighters put out a fire in Moomomi that burned more than 600 acres yesterday.
Five companies and three helicopters responded to the fire around noon in the wild grassland area north of the Molokai airport, said Capt. Derrick Arruda. There were no structures in danger, Arruda said. Firefighters expected to have the fire contained last night.
Honolulu firefighters returned for the second week in a row to a Kunia brush fire when hot spots flared up again yesterday afternoon.
Two fire trucks were sent to the fire, which destroyed about 220 acres since last Wednesday, at about 1 p.m. A Honolulu Fire Department helicopter dropped water on the hot spots from the air.
The fire traveled upward toward the mountain, but firefighters were able to contain the fire within an hour, said fire Capt. Emmit Kane.
As soon as the HFD helicopter finished at the Kunia site, it went straight to another brush fire in Pearl City, said Kane. That fire burned about 15 acres on the Pearl City Peninsula near the H-1 freeway overpass and a Hawaiian Electric Co. power plant, but no structures were threatened, Kane said.
Smoke from the fire could be seen for miles around Oahu.
Two engines and three tankers were sent to the fire around 2 p.m., but crews stayed until around 7 p.m. The challenging part was getting access to the fire, said Kane.
Firefighters had to walk through a muddy, marsh area and had to use a three-truck relay, which means transporting water from each fire truck to another, to extinguish the fire, said Kane.