Pupukea firefighter Chris Nolan extinguished a utility pole fire yesterday at the Comsat satellite receiving station in the hills above Sunset Beach. Electrical power was knocked out to Comsat when fuses blew after two termite-infested utility poles snapped. Of particular concern to Comsat workers were fiber-optic cables used to download information from satellites.
Rain keeps brush fires’
pace in checkFewer blazes have been reported
in 2004, but July has been busy
Brush fire season is keeping Oahu firefighters busy, but rainy weather has helped keep the number of blazes well below last year's pace.
So far this year, 293 brush fires were reported, down 45 percent from the 537 reported in the same period last year, according to the Honolulu Fire Department.
"It's a lot wetter this year, which has slowed down the number of brush fires we've had," said fire Capt. Kenison Tejada.
Still, the pace has picked up this month. There have been 142 brush fires for July so far, nearly half the year-to-date total.
Yesterday, firefighters battled at least seven brush fires. The largest one was in Kunia, threatening native plants and animals, including the endangered elepaio bird, of which there are fewer than 1,000 on Oahu.
The fire consumed more than 30 acres as of yesterday afternoon and continued to head into the mountains pushed by a stiff wind, fire Capt. Emmit Kane said.
Because firetrucks could not reach the area, about 25 city and 25 federal firefighters had to cut a fire line with picks and shovels to impede the fire, Kane said.
A Honolulu Fire Department helicopter and a Marine helicopter dropped buckets of water, but the fire continued to rage into valleys.
The fire began in the grassy fields just beyond the pineapple fields across from Hawaii Country Club on Kunia Road. The fields could not be reached by firetrucks.
Police arrested five teenagers ranging in age from 14 to 17 for trespassing.
Del Monte workers stopped the teens, who were reportedly seen coming out of a back field, police said.
Police, however, have not linked the teens -- residents of Honolulu, Wahiawa and Pearl City -- to the fire.
The fire struck the southern portion of the Honouliuli Nature Preserve and burned non-native trees including eucalyptus trees, said Pauline Sato, Oahu program director of the Nature Conservancy.
The preserve, managed by the Nature Conservancy, contains a diverse native forest, with a variety of species and pockets of rare and endangered plants, snails, insects and birds.
"We don't think it's reached the elepaio habitat," Sato said yesterday afternoon. If the fire spreads to a higher elevation and moves north, it could threaten the habitat of these rare plant and animal species, she added.
"Once the fire gets in a gully or gulch, it can really take off," she said.
Kane said the fire had been moving north.
Firefighters also battled three brush fires along Franklin D. Roosevelt Avenue in Kalaeloa which were brought under control.
In the mountains above Kahuku, a utility pole fell yesterday, creating sparks that caused a small brush fire. The fire affected power to the Comsat facility, said Jose Dizon, Hawaiian Electric Co. spokesman.
