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Fireworks ignite
Star-Bulletin staff
numerous blazesPolice and fire departments were busy on the Fourth of July with complaints about noise and scattered fires.
The Honolulu Fire Department responded to 12 brush fires and an equal number of rubbish fires.
The Maui Fire Department responded to 13 brush fires in the county, nine of them caused by fireworks.
The most serious fires on Oahu were in Lualualei near Hakimo Road, and on the slopes of Punchbowl alongside Prospect Street.
Bystanders at the highly visible Punchbowl fire reported seeing young men playing with fireworks near the brushy bluff just before 9 p.m. Wind carried the flames uphill, away from apartments and houses.
Firefighters had difficulty reaching the flames on the crater's steep slopes.
The fire was under control by 10:30 p.m. as firefighters dragged hoses uphill via ropes to douse hot spots.
Police were busy handling crowd control last night in the Waikiki and Ala Moana areas. Police said having cars enter Ala Moana Beach Park only through the Diamond Head side of the park and exit through the Ewa end, alleviated a lot of traffic problems.
On Maui, firefighters were worried about some blazes that came close to homes.
Assistant Fire Chief Alan Cordeiro said many of the fires were caused by illegal aerial fireworks.
He said a fire in a gulch mauka of the Pukalani Golf Course came within 100 yards of homes last night and burned 25 acres of brush.
Firefighters assisted by water drops from a helicopter took more than five hours to put out the blaze after the alarm at 9:24 p.m.
Cordeiro said another fireworks-related fire burned five acres of brush southeast of the Maui Community Correctional Center.
