CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Fire officials say a brush fire yesterday between Kaukonahua Road and Kamehameha Highway appeared deliberately set.

Waialua brush fire
burns 500 acres

Firefighters battled a 500-acre brush fire in Waialua yesterday for more than seven hours.

Fire officials believe the blaze was intentionally set, the latest in a large number of suspicious brush fires in Leeward Oahu and the North Shore.

"When we got there, there were several areas that were burning," fire Capt. Kenison Tejada said.

The fire never threatened any homes, and firefighters successfully protected a ranch in the area, Tejada said.

The Honolulu Fire Department first received a call about a sign of smoke at about 11:45 a.m. from residents in the area of Hukilau Loop.

But the fire was burning half to three-quarters of a mile above Hukilau Loop, between Kaukonahua Road and Kamehameha Highway, Tejada said.

About 50 Fire Department personnel and a dozen federal firefighters, along with military and fire helicopters, worked to put out the flames.

The fire was contained about 7 p.m., and the Fire Department was to monitor the situation overnight.

The fire scorched agricultural land, some of which was still in use.

Winds helped slow its spread. The fire traveled upland against the wind, which helped hold it down, Tejada said. "We would have been there much longer" otherwise, he said.

The blaze created a lot of smoke, in part because some of the grass was still green, Tejada said.

Yesterday's blaze struck much of the same area that was hit two years ago by a brush fire that razed 1,000 acres of old sugar cane and pineapple fields, helped by shifting winds.

That brush fire, on Sept. 26, 2003, came dangerously close to homes in Poamoho Estates and along Hukilau Loop.

Maui flare-up forces
firefighters to return

LAHAINA » A mountainside fire above Lahaina town flared up yesterday evening, prompting more helicopter water drops and the return of county firefighters.

The fire, first reported at 6:59 p.m. Tuesday, was contained by midday yesterday, and more than a dozen state forestry workers were working to control it within a 4-acre burn area.

State fire incident commander Glenn Shishido said forestry workers were having difficulty putting out the blaze because it was in an area that was heavily wooded and contained eucalyptus trees.

Shishido said the fire, located below Mount Ball at the 1,400-foot level, did not threaten any endangered species.

Maui County firefighters battled the blaze until it was contained at about midday yesterday, but the flare-up prompted their return by evening, state and county officials said.

Shishido said county fire officials found some fireworks residue that might indicate the fire's cause.