The Hawaii Fire Department continued Tuesday battling a Ka‘u brush fire outside Naalehu that destroyed a home in Green Sands subdivision.
The fire was about 80 percent contained as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Hawaii County Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira.
“We still have just one structure that was lost,” he said. “And, fortunately, even that one structure lost was a vacant structure. So, the Red Cross is currently not in the position of having to provide shelter for anyone.”
However, about 24 of the homes in the neighborhood were on county-metered water and were fed by exposed plastic pipes that were melted by the fire.
“So, we have a number of residents down there without water,” he said.
One county public works tanker stationed at Green Sands Park was being made available until 7 p.m. Tuesday to provide non-potable water to the public for uses such as flushing toilets. Meanwhile, a second private tanker was in the area offering potable water to residents.
“We’ll reassess tonight and see how things are (today),” Oliveira said.
At about 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, Fire Battalion Chief Warren Sumida reported the fire was only about 50 percent contained.
“We don’t consider it under control yet,” he said. “We’re going to continue monitoring the perimeter of the fire and prevent it from spreading.”
The fire was centered around Kaalualu Waiohinu Road, between Pele and Mark Twain streets.
Approximately 19 firefighters were working the scene Tuesday, Sumida said.
“We’re asking for persons in that area to be careful and drive slowly because of the traffic from fire department vehicles,” he said.
Red Cross spokeswoman Maria Lutz said an emergency shelter opened Monday at the Naalehu Community Center was shutting down Tuesday morning.
“We’re in the process of doing that now,” she said. “We do have volunteers going out serving the area to find out how many homes were affected by the fire.”
About 23 people had reported to the shelter early Monday evening, but ended up leaving once the roadways were re-opened, according to Hawaii County Red Cross Disaster Manager Barney Sheffield.
“The fire department did an amazing job. It’s really incredible we didn’t lose more houses with all the wind we had out there,” he said.
The fire was caused by a rubbish or green waste burn pile that got out of control, according to Assistant Fire Chief Gantry Andrade. He said dry conditions and strong winds were spreading the fire, which had burned about 15 acres by Monday evening.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
