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Dry weather
spells trouble for
firefighters

Leeward Coast stations brace
for the worst and applaud residents'
efforts to minimize the
threat of brush fires

By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

Between the picturesque shoreline and jagged mountain range, dry brush covering thousands of acres poses an annual summer threat to Leeward Coast residents.

Haole koa, kiawe and other dry-land vegetation from Makakilo to Yokohama Bay is a tinderbox that, when lit, requires 24-hour attention, not only from Waianae, Nanakuli and Makakilo firefighters, but from many other Honolulu Fire Department companies to prevent property loss.

"We know it's going to happen, it's just a matter of time," Waianae ladder Capt. Darrell Kuioka said.

"Everything has been dry for awhile so it's primed and ready. There's not much we can do in the meantime except be prepared."

The usual hot spots are Waianae Valley and the ridgelines leading out to Farrington Highway, Lualualei, Mailiili Road, "Camp Andrews" between Nanakuli and Haleakala avenues, Hakimo Road, Makua and Makaha.

Richard Nunes, a Nanakuli resident and veteran fire captain, is approaching this summer's situation with guarded optimism.

"Last summer was an off year and we've never had one like that in the nine years that I've been (at the Nanakuli station)," Nunes said.

"I'd like to think the Fire Safety Guide education program has had an impact. Children have become more aware of sustaining land and not having firefighters in the brush when they could be saving someone's life."

Waianae Engine Capt. Francis Nishimura, a veteran of Leeward Coast brush fire fights, has also seen a trend toward prevention by residents, who have taken the time to clear brush to protect their property.

"An area in Lualualei called 'Voice of America' has a lot of homes with wood-shingle roofs and brush fires used to come real close to them," Nishimura said.

"Recently, we've seen that they've extended their fire break there to about 50 yards. It used to be about 20 feet. That's the kind of thing that really helps because our main concern is protecting property."

Nunes has suggested that private, state and federal landowners on the coast create fire breaks, a move he says would save the Fire Department a lot of time and manpower in brush fire fights.

"A lot of these places are inaccessible to fire trucks," Nunes said. "Cutting a fire break would alleviate the risk of fires jumping from Point A to Point B.

"We're using 20 apparatus to fight these fires now when we actually might need only four or five if there was a fire break."

Fire fights in the brush place firefighters in extremely dangerous situations.

"It's hazardous because you cannot tell what the terrain is like," Nishimura said. "And wind is an important factor. If there's wind, it can make the fire travel so fast."

Before last summer, firefighters at Nanakuli could expect three to seven alarms a day, most of them for brush fires, says Nunes.

"A company could go to one alarm and be there for 24 hours," Nunes said. "In some areas, the brush fire might be going for two to three days.

"On the average, you're out (in the brush) almost every shift."

Denton Kissell, a Waianae Coast Neighborhood Board member who lives at Kulapa Place in Maili, says an unusually wet spring in 1999 contributed to a low number of summer brush fires.

"We need rain," he said. "Everything's dried up.

"It's going to happen and I believe this is going to be a bad summer for the Fire Department."

For years, area residents have talked about the "fire bugs" who start brush fires, pointing out that some kids are only doing what their fathers and grandfathers once did.

"A lot of times, we're working in areas that are not too accessible," Nishimura said. "It tends to make us believe a lot of these fires are started under suspicious circumstances."

Kissell added, "I'm under the impression that a lot of them are started by kids. And once it starts, it just goes in succession."