Much-needed rain helped firefighters hold back two Pahala wildfires from spreading beyond the nearly 5,300 acres already charred in Kau.

"We were lucky to have some rain that kind of slowed everything down," said Pahala firefighter Mike Murray, a fire equipment operator who served as a spokesman. "We’re maintaining everything within the firebreaks established."

While no lives and structures have been threatened, the fires destroyed trees on some independently owned coffee farms and a eucalyptus farm, but spared the orchards owned by Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corp., fire officials said.

The fires began Monday.

Fire officials reported that the cause of the fires is unknown.

Rain slowed the progress of the blaze on the makai side of Highway 11, or Mamalahoa Highway.

That fire was up to nearly 5,000 acres Wednesday evening. It was slowly moving north, helped by the breezes from the ocean during the day.

Police reopened Highway 11 Wednesday afternoon after shutting it down from mile markers 46 to 51.

"It’s not spreading as fast," Pahala fire Capt. Curt Yamashita said Wednesday night. "It rained and the winds are low."

At 8:45 p.m. the 24-hour rainfall total for Kau was just more than a third of an inch.

Yamashita said there was no active burning beyond the current borders but there was still fuel within the perimeter.

"There’s always a chance of it spreading," Murray said. "Our goal is to prevent that from happening. Several bulldozer operators worked all day establishing firebreaks."

The 400-acre mauka fire above Pahala town was 95 percent contained Wednesday evening.

The 49 Hawaii County firefighters and a U.S. National Park Service firefighting crew worked with bulldozers mauka and makai of Highway 11, cutting the breaks.

The fire jumped Highway 11 at the 49-mile marker to the mauka side of the road on Tuesday night, forcing firefighters to reposition bulldozers to contain the blaze, said Assistant Fire Chief Aaron Arbles.

Firefighters were aided by water drops by the department’s helicopter on the makai side of Highway 11.

Arbles said four water tanker trucks holding 2,500 to 5,000 gallons of water continued to douse portions of the highway to prevent the fires from spreading.

The wildfire came within a few miles of the boundary of Volcanoes National Park, Murray said.

In addition to the cultivated trees, the fire has also destroyed some ohia and other native trees and plants as well as alien trees and brush such as Christmas berry, he said.