Despite recent rain, flare-ups from Monday’s 40-acre fire in Puhi consumed 21/2 acres yesterday, adding to the state’s recent onslaught of land casualties in the past month. Though Kaua‘i has had fewer acres lost to fire than other counties —
Despite recent rain, flare-ups from Monday’s 40-acre fire in Puhi consumed 21/2 acres yesterday, adding to the state’s recent onslaught of land casualties in the past month.
Though Kaua‘i has had fewer acres lost to fire than other counties — approximately 25,000 were destroyed on the Big Island within the past month — the hundreds of acres consumed on-island have helped inch Hawai‘i closer to being declared a disaster area, Mark Marshall, Kaua‘i Civil Defense administrator, said.
That threshold is $800,000 annually, which, once met by fighting wildland fires, can prompt Gov. Linda Lingle to request such a designation from the White House, he added.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state’s civil defense keep tabs on Kaua‘i fires through Marshall’s department, keeping the county in sync with its requisites to apply for federal funding to fight fires.
For the Kaua‘i Civil Defense that means both higher-up entities are entitled to reports of fires as they are occurring, Marshall said.
With at least 52 response-required fires having occurred in the past month on-island, Marhsall said he hopes residents won’t mistake the recent reprieve from dry weather to mean the risk for more fires has been diminished.
“Simply because it’s started to rain doesn’t take the threat of fire away,” Marshall said. “There is a lot of brush — fuel load — out there. …Much of it’s downed trees from ‘Iniki.”
Though Hurricane ‘Iniki was nearly 15 years ago, Marshall said Department of Land and Natural Resources officers have reported a barrage of the trees’ remains throughout the island, which, covered in new growth, have acted as kindling stoking recent fires.
Nine firefighters from the Kalaheo, Kapa‘a, and Lihu‘e stations responded at noon to yesterday’s 21/2-acre fire that was a flare-up of the Monday fire that burned 10 acres of the Hule‘ia National Wildlife Refuge and 30 acres of surrounding brush, Mary Daubert, county spokeswoman, said.
Inter-Island Air-1 was called to assist when embers from the wildlife refuge fire flew across a dirt road and started a brush fire in the nearby pasture. The burning tree line in the wildlife refuge and leading edge of the fire in the pasture were then knocked down by the Inter-Island helicopter.
The fire was deemed under control by 2 p.m. At press time, firefighters remained on-scene to extinguish hot spots.
