FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM A brush fire in Kalani Valley burned up the hillside yesterday, threatening houses above on Wiliwilinui Ridge and houses below along Kumakani Loop. A Fire Department helicopter, above, dropped water on the blaze.

---

Fire cuts power to
part of East Oahu

A blaze in Kalani Valley burns
three acres and briefly threatens
Waialae Iki homes

A fast-moving fire scorched several Kalani Valley acres yesterday, knocking out power in the area and briefly threatening luxury Waialae Iki houses along the ridge above.

Fire Capt. Kenison Tejada said the fire, reported at 1:36 p.m., burned about three acres between Kalani Iki Estate and Wiliwilinui Ridge. The blaze came within about 20 feet of homes, but none were damaged, he said.

The Fire Department dispatched eight engines, a tanker and Air One. They advised Waialae Iki residents to prepare to evacuate, but none were evacuated. The fire was contained at about 3:30 p.m.

"It's a significant two to three acres because of the power lines being affected and the proximity to the residents," he said.

Several residents reported hearing explosions before and during the fire and theorized that the noise came from electrical transformers in the area.

"We just heard two big explosions, one about an hour ago and one 15 minutes ago," Henry Richmond, a Kalani Iki Estate resident, said shortly before 2 p.m.

Richmond watched with neighbors as a roughly 10-foot-tall row of flames moved up the mountainside behind their homes. "I came out of the house, and in 10 minutes" it had burned the mountainside, he said. "It's all very fast."

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Kalani Iki Estate residents Keren McCord, left, and Melina Lillos looked up at the smoldering hillside yesterday as a brush fire in Kalani Valley threatened homes in the area.

"We don't have a history of transformer explosions there or anywhere, but sometimes when there is an arcing, there is a loud booming noise," he said. (Arcing is when electricity jumps from one side of an insulator to another.)

Rather than arcing causing the blaze, Rosegg said, the fire "more likely consumed the pole, then the pole began to shift or move, and that caused the arcing."

HECO worked last night to restore power to its customers in Kalani Iki and at the top of Waialae Iki ridge by temporarily connecting them to different circuits until the pole can be replaced, Rosegg said. HECO hoped to restore power to all customers by 11 p.m.

The fire edged up toward about a dozen Waialae Iki houses on Kihi Street and Kumakani Loop, which police shut down, preventing residents who rushed home from checking on their houses.

The winds blew makai, inundating the high school and surrounding neighborhood in smoke and ash as students were getting out of class.

After a neighbor called him at work, Kalani Iki Estate resident Harlen Cadinha arrived home to find firefighters about 100 feet behind his house trying to extinguish a burning utility pole that had high-voltage lines attached.

"Transformers blow all the time -- at least once a year," he said.

Fire investigators had not identified the cause of the fire as of last night.