Park service pushes
fire-control effort

Advancing lava threatens to
reignite a Big Island brush fire

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Associated Press

VOLCANO, Hawaii >> National Park Service firefighters were poised this morning to continue their fire control efforts to keep an advancing Kilauea Volcano lava flow from reigniting a brush fire that blackened 880 acres at the 2,100-foot level on Pulama Pali Saturday.

"We are approaching the weekend, and it's clear that the suppression operation will continue as long as the lava flow has the potential to reignite the adjacent fuels," said Jim Martin, superintendent of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Yesterday 50 firefighters removed grass and shrubs along a control line as lava continued to flow downslope to the east of the line. The line, nearly three-quarters of a mile long, is a preventive tactic to prevent any lava-ignited fire from spreading northwest into upland woodland and rain forest that are home to native plant and animal species, park officials said.

Also yesterday, helicopters equipped with 100-gallon buckets dropped water on remaining hot spots, while scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory flew reconnaissance to monitor the speed and direction of the advancing front of the flow.