Big Isle blaze
torches 2,000 acres

Firefighting efforts are
hampered by the fear of
old military shells
remaining in the area

CORRECTION Thursday, September 16, 2004 » Residents of the Ouli Self-Help Housing Community in Waikoloa on the Big Island were evacuated for several hours Sunday as a brush fire neared the subdivision. A story on Page A3 in Tuesday's early edition incorrectly labeled the subdivision as the Waiula Ole Self-Help Housing Community. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at corrections@starbulletin.com.

A brush fire that started Sunday morning in the South Kohala district of the Big Island was contained but was not fully under control last night, fire officials said.

Hawaii County Fire Chief Darryl Oliveira said close to 2,000 acres have burned. About 30 firefighters continued to battle the fire yesterday.

Hawaii County Civil Defense officials said that one county and two private bulldozers were completing a 25- to 30-foot-wide firebreak last night.

Two helicopters dropped water on the blaze for the second day.

A dozen firefighters will continue monitoring the fire throughout the night, with hopes of having it completely under control by today.

Twenty families were evacuated from the Mauna Kea Uplands subdivisions near the Mauna Kea Beach Resort on Sunday afternoon, according to Jack Dye, the resort's director of safety and security.

An additional 50 families were evacuated from the Waiula Ole Self-Help Housing Community. All were allowed to return to their homes by Sunday evening.

No one was injured in the blaze, nor were there any reports of damage to houses.

Less than a dozen people drifted into the emergency shelter set up by the American Red Cross, but none stayed and the facility was shut at 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

The possibility of unexploded military ordnance in the area hampered firefighting efforts.

The fire started near Camp Tarawa, a World War II-era training facility where such ordinance has been discovered in the past, Oliveira said. As a precaution, firefighters were prohibited from fighting the blaze on foot.

"This is a perfect example of why we need clear mapping of unexploded ordnance," said County Councilman Bob Jacobson. Last spring, Jacobson introduced a bill mandating such mapping, but the measure was deferred because of a lack of a funding source.

"This should be funded at the state or federal level," said Jacobson, who notes that other sections of the state face similar problems.

"The military needs to make its best effort possible to clean this up. These weapons were never meant to kill Americans," he said.

Although the cause of this fire has yet to be determined, it started near the road. Oliveira said such fires often start when a lit cigarette is tossed out a car window.

"There are sections of our island that are extremely dry right now," he said, "and I would ask everyone to please be especially careful when things are this dry."