VOLCANO, Hawaii >> Park rangers at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island relocated a family of three nenes yesterday before a lava flow from Kilauea Volcano crossed the end of Chain of Craters Road. Big Island rangers
save nenes from lavaAssociated Press
"Park rangers went down there and basically scooped them up in their arms and carried them out of harm's way," Ranger Mardie Lane said.
The father, mother and baby Hawaiian geese were taken away from the path of the flow to an area not susceptible to the heat of the molten rock, Lane said.
After burying the end of the road, fingers of lava continued moving toward the ocean, about 100 yards away, she said.
While the nenes were being rescued, park maintenance crews worked next to the flowing lava and burning asphalt, moving two wooden structures, picnic tables and restrooms about a mile up the road, Lane said.
They also dug up and moved septic tanks, she said.
Meanwhile, an upslope wildfire sparked by the lava flow Monday was reported 25 percent contained yesterday, according to Ranger Cathy Hardy, a fire information officer from Eldorado National Forest in California.
Two firefighting hand-crews from California and one from the park were aided by a little rain and fairly light winds as they worked to build a line around the northern, western and southern edges of the fire, Hardy said.
The fire, which has covered about 2,000 acres, forced the closure of Chain of Craters Road, but the upper half of the road was reopened yesterday.