A large wildfire in the slopes east of Mililani Mauka sent ash drifting across that Central Oahu neighborhood on Monday, but fire officials said that thus far the blaze doesn’t threaten homes and they haven’t ordered residents to evacuate.
Ground units with the Honolulu Fire Department first reached the blaze at 6:12 a.m., according to Assistant Chief Kevin Mokulehua. However, the rugged terrain they encountered led island-based fire crews to fight the wildfire entirely from the air.
At least five helicopters, including two Army Blackhawk choppers, took turns dousing the fire from above as the flames moved east and away from homes, Mokulehua said at a press conference at HFD headquarters.
As of 12 p.m. the fire had already burned about a square mile, or 620 acres, according to Mokulehua. He didn’t have a cause for the fire at the press conference – nor did he have an estimate for how much of the blaze had been contained to that point.
Efforts to contain it “could definitely last beyond today,” he added
However, Mokulehua added that HFD believed it “was in a good place right now” thanks to calm winds in the area. The winds ranged between 5 mph and 15 mph, he said.
Honolulu city officials did not activate their Emergency Operations Center on Monday because the fire did not pose a danger to the neighborhood, according to Ian Scheuring, a spokesman for Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi.
Local municipalities use such EOC’s as central hubs in an emergency to respond to the crisis more quickly.
Some Mililani residents said they had never seen a wildfire of that magnitude near their neighborhood nor had they encountered so much ash from a nearby fire.
Mokulehua said fire crews would continue to attack the fire, then evaluate how effective their efforts were. “If we need to re-strategize we will,” he said.
It wasn’t clear who owned the land where the fire was burning. HFD spokeswoman Louise Kim McCoy said that it could eventually threaten some land controlled by the federal Department of Interior.
The blaze comes as much of Hawaii remains on edge after the deadly Aug. 8 fire that destroyed much of Lahaina town on Maui, when hurricane-force winds whipped a wildfire fueled by dry, invasive vegetation such as guinea grass.
Mokulehua said he wasn’t sure exactly what type of foliage lay in the path of the Mililani fire on Monday but it was “definitely greener” than the dry vegetation that spread the Lahaina fire.
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