Nanakuli wildfires
put area on alert

The fires block access to the
Waianae Coast and threaten
homes and a power plant

Brush fires ravaged mountains and valleys in Nanakuli yesterday, closing Farrington Highway twice and threatening the Kahe Power Plant, homes, utility towers and forest reserves.

Fire officials gave an early estimate of about 2,000 acres destroyed in yesterday's fires and said about 140 city and federal firefighters were battling the fires.

The fires cut off access to and from Waianae for several hours yesterday morning as a fire headed toward the Hawaiian Electric Co.'s Kahe Power Plant. The Army helped out by opening Kolekole Pass to civilian traffic before the highway was reopened shortly before noon.

However, the fire flared up again late last night, again threatening the power plant, and police shut Farrington Highway again at about 9:40 p.m.

Police dispatch said the fire was getting close to the power plant's fuel tanks and to overhead lines, jeopardizing the public's safety.

A Honolulu Fire Department spokesman said there were "significant" flare-ups near the plant but that there was a good buffer behind the plant and that firefighters were more concerned about nearby homes at Kahe Point.

About seven helicopters, including HFD's Air One and four from the Army, made water drops on the blazes during the day.

The fires started Sunday afternoon, possibly due to arcing on a utility pole that witnesses said was about 200 to 300 yards from the top of the ridge above Nanakuli Valley, said fire Capt. Emmit Kane.

Federal and city firefighters also fought a blaze along the ridge to protect Camp Timberline and about 16 homes on Palehua Road, as well as the Nanakuli and Honouliuli forest reserves.

No evacuations were ordered, but residents affected by the smoke were being advised to leave the area.

Nanakuli residents stood helplessly early yesterday evening as they watched once-distant orange flames head toward their homes as the wind shifted in their direction.

Forty-year-old Roy Kainoa, who has lived on the street for nearly 25 years, assisted firefighters with their hoses, his eyes red from the smoke.

A ravine through which a dry stream bed runs formed a natural firebreak but also prevented firefighters from crossing over.

"If it jumps, then it's going to get us," Kainoa said.

Firefighters were staged in various cul-de-sacs off Nanakuli Avenue above Nanakuli High School waiting for the fire to get close.

The winds whipped up, the heat from the fire could be felt, and thick smoke blanketed the homes as black ash rained down. Men and at least one woman fought the fire with their garden hoses behind the firefighters.

Allen Cardines, 79, who had been watching the brush fire from his neighbor's home across the street, jumped into action, running to his home and shooting his garden hose as huge flames got close.

Minutes earlier he said, "It's the closest it ever came. I feel safe because the firemen are over here."

One man brought his wife, an asthma sufferer, to his son's home in Kapolei. But his mother-in-law, 74-year-old Audrey Bartholomew, stayed with her Rottweiler, Baby, who pulled her out from a Jan. 4 fire that destroyed her Akowai Road home in Nanakuli.

"That's why I don't want to go nowhere," said Bartholomew.

Cindy Callejo saw flames nearing the back of her home.

"I feel sorry for all the older people," she said. "Oh my God, I think the saddest thing is there's homes down there."

Her dog shivered in the back yard, a stray she picked up after a previous fire.

Jodie Makue watched as a helicopter made a water drop, hoping it would hit the flames getting close to homes. When it did, she waved a "thank you."

"My house is not too bad, but we've known everybody so long," she said at the thought of losing her neighbors. "It's scary."

Firefighters were able to contain the fire before it reached their homes.

HFD's Kane said the terrain made it difficult for firefighters to get to the fire fronts on Sunday and yesterday, with many areas being on vertical cliffs.

Firefighters had to wait until the fire migrated down far enough for them to reach.

About 80 city and federal firefighters fought the Palehua blaze, while about 60 battled the Nanakuli Avenue fire late yesterday afternoon.

Kane said the fires initially headed back into Nanakuli Valley, then migrated up and around and over to the edge of Farrington Highway. The fire fronts burned simultaneously and grew in all directions. The fire consumed areas on the Nanakuli side of Nanakuli Valley, spread over the ridge and makai to the subdivision on the town side of the ridge, including Piliokahi Street.

By yesterday morning the fire had blackened the ridge from top to bottom and the open area between that subdivision and Kahe Power Plant but did not reach the power plant.

Firefighters had that fire contained by 11:30 a.m.

Opening Kolekole Pass
requires coordination

It took about three hours yesterday to get public traffic going through the 4-mile Kolekole Pass on military property as the only highway into the Waianae Coast was closed because of a large brush fire.

The fire started Sunday in Nanakuli Valley and had burned 1,500 acres by the time it began moving along the ridges toward Kahe Point in the morning. By about 8 a.m. the smoke was so dense that Oahu police and civil defense officials closed Farrington Highway. Waianae-bound traffic was turned back at the Kahe power plant, while Honolulu-bound traffic was turned back at Piliokahi Avenue.

At 11:10 a.m. the only alternative to Farrington Highway, Kolekole Pass, was open. It was to remain available for civilian cars only until 6 last night. The road is unimproved with no street lights or shoulders in some areas. Army engineers constructed the road in 1937.

Access to Kolekole is not as simple as turning on a water faucet. Military officials, who control access to the restricted area, say a lot of coordination has to take place. There are also major security issues governing both Lualualei and Schofield Barracks, many of which the military does not want to discuss.

The Navy controls the area, and Navy Region Hawaii spokeswoman Agnes Tauyan said yesterday that emergency use of the road is handled on a case-by-case basis. Once a request is made by the state Transportation Department or Oahu Civil Defense, Tauyan added, "the Navy is willing to support the request as long as there are no priority missions being conducted in the ammunition depot."

On the Waianae side, there is a 7-mile Navy access road from the gates of the Lualualei Naval Magazine to the pass. The Army portion runs through six miles of Schofield Barracks and ends at Lyman Gate on Kunia Road.

Kolekole Pass normally is closed to the public.

The last time the road was open to civilian traffic was in July 2003, when a police officer and a child were killed and five other people were injured in a head-on collision that closed all four lanes of Farrington Highway.

Both Lualualei and Schofield are closed military bases. Only people with military IDs are allowed on either installation under normal conditions.

However, the Navy and the Army said yesterday that under emergency conditions people only need to have a proper driver's license and current no-fault insurance card, safety sticker and vehicle registration.