While Hawaii island firefighters continued to battle a massive brush fire in the Kau district, a smaller fire in Poipu, Kauai, and two others in Maui County kept firefighters busy over the weekend.
The Kau fire was initially reported at 5:17 a.m.
Thursday in a remote, 5-acre coastal area below Naalehu.
By Sunday the blaze had grown to encompass some 1,600 acres from Waikapuna Bay to Naalehu, within a mile of the Green Sands subdivision, according to the Hawaii County Fire Department.
In addition to the main burn area, more than a dozen spot fires also broke out Saturday.
By Saturday evening fire was contained within a perimeter of roads widened by bulldozers.
Meanwhile, multiple fire units were dispatched to a brush fire in Poipu on Sunday afternoon.
A Kauai County Fire Department helicopter and two private helicopters assisted firefighters in controlling the fire, which was in an open field on the mauka side of the dirt roads that lead to Mahaulepu.
The fire was brought under control by 6 p.m., and fire crews were expected to monitor the scene overnight.
No injuries were reported and no structures were threatened.
On Saturday, Maui County Fire Department personnel extinguished a 1-acre grass fire that broke out at 3:35 p.m. off Farrington Avenue in Kualapuu, Molokai.
Crews brought the fire under control at 4:13 p.m. and had it extinguished at 5:46 p.m.
The fire’s cause was undetermined. There were no injuries and no structures were threatened.
Also on Saturday, Maui fire crews responded to a fire in Wailuku that burned around four acres of brush in former macadamia nut fields off of Kahekili Highway.
Wailuku firefighters arrived at 7:51 p.m. and found about an acre on fire on the mauka side of Kahekili Highway, a half-mile north of Makaala Drive. Crews had trouble getting to the fire because of an abandoned
vehicle blocking an old
plantation road off the highway.
Firefighters had to park on Kahekili Highway and run hoses about 100 yards in through the brush to get to the fire.
The fire was contained at 2:36 a.m. Sunday. The cause was undetermined. There were no injuries and no structures were threatened.
Fire crews were mopping up hot spots Sunday.
