Brush fire For the third time in a little more than two weeks, a major brush fire stretched the Honolulu Fire Department's manpower to a dangerous level yesterday.
scorches 10 acres
near Waialua
The third such blaze since
June 22 has fire officials
concerned about manpowerBy Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.com"We're just smack dab in the middle of brush fire season," said fire department spokes-man Capt. Richard Soo. "We could see this all the way past September with this dry season."
The fire, which scorched 10 acres along Kaukonahua Road above Waialua, began at 12:11 p.m., not long after five fire companies responded to a possible hazardous fluid leak on a Matson container ship at Pier 52 at 10:53 a.m. (See story, A5)
After 11 fire companies from as far as Nanakuli and Pearl City and the fire department chopper were sent out to the brush fire, the fire department was at what it calls Level 2 manning, meaning one out of every three on-duty firefighters had been called out.
The last two major brush fires -- on June 23 near the Waianae Comprehensive Health Center and on June 22 in Kaneohe off the H-3 freeway -- also caused the fire department to reach Level 2 manning.
"If we go into Level 3, where 50 percent of on-duty firefighters are there, then we go to a mandatory recall of off-duty firefighters," said Soo.
The last time that happened was the Interstate Bank Building fire on South King Street. HFD also reached a Level 3 recall at last year's Waiawa brush fire off the H-2 freeway near Costco, Soo said.
Yesterday's Waialua fire started on the Waianae mountain side of Kaukonahua Road near the University of Hawaii's Poamoho experimental farm. The half-dozen buildings at the farm were never threatened by the fire; neither were the two homes in the area.
"It ran from us," Waialua fire Capt. Thomas Roblin said of the fire. "We didn't have enough water, and the fuel -- the dried brush -- was real thick."
The former sugar cane fields are overgrown with tall, thick grass.
The fire started near the road, then the wind caught it and pushed it toward Waialua, Roblin said. Roblin's engine company and two tankers stopped the fire from progressing downwind but had difficulty containing the part of the fire that spread down the steep slopes of a forested valley. In some areas there was just a sheer drop, Roblin said.
About 40 firefighters brought the fire under control shortly after 4:30 p.m., Soo said.
Part of Kaukonahua Road was closed as firefighters battled the blaze. Because of the roadblocks, Joan Santoro, who had gone shopping in Wahiawa, was forced to drive down Kamehameha Highway to Waialua and then back up Kaukonahua to her newly built home, the only one in Poamoho Estates.
Santoro was finally able to get home with her warm groceries after 2 p.m."This is at least the second brush fire. It's really dry, I guess," she said.
Santoro asked firefighters to make sure her neighbors, Elden Kirito and his family, were OK. The Kiritos live across the highway above the experimental farm.
Luckily, Kirito's new cedar home was upwind of the fire and out of harm's way.
Kirito called 911 after a passerby stopped at his house and told him about the fire.
"I know how fast the thing shifts," Kirito said.
Kirito has equipped every room in his house with sprinklers since he is far from any fire hydrant.
The cause of yesterday's fire has not been determined, Soo said.
But a previous fire in the same location was obviously started by a careless smoker who discarded a cigarette butt, Soo said.