Injured woman, family airlifted out of rainforest

A 36-year-old woman from Mexico sprained her ankle while hiking to see an active lava flow and was airlifted off a rainforest trail by a county helicopter early Wednesday evening.

The woman, who wasn’t seriously injured, was on a guided lava tour with five other family members, who were also airlifted, along with two Ahiu Hawaii tour guides, to a landing zone in Fern Forest subdivision, where the woman was examined by paramedics from Volcano Fire Station. The woman didn’t require further medical attention, according to a written Fire Department statement.

“The reason (for airlifting the entire group) was to keep them together as a unit,” Fire Battalion Chief Jerry Lum said Thursday.

Six units, including the chopper, were dispatched after the 5:03 p.m. call by the woman. The first unit arrived on scene at 5:36 p.m., according to the release.

The Fire Department release stated the rescue took place on a muddy trail in the Kahaualea Natural Area Reserve, but Ahiu Hawaii owner Orion-Independence Enocencio said it actually occurred in Wao Kele o Puna rainforest.

“We were totally out of the natural area reserve. The natural area reserve runs from the top of Glenwood to the (Hawaii Volcanoes National Park). It doesn’t run down to where we was,” Enocencio said. “The forest reserve is run by the state (Department of Land and Natural Resources). Then you’ve got the Wao Kele o Puna below that. (Office of Hawaiian Affairs) takes care of that.”

DLNR administrative rules prohibit commercial activity in a forest reserve without a permit from the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

In an email Thursday afternoon, OHA spokesman Garett Kamemoto said its land in Wao Kele is also part of the forest reserve and subject to DLNR rules, and referred questions to them.

“OHA does not condone the use of its land at Wao Kele o Puna for commercial activities,” he wrote. DLNR did not return phone calls in time for this story.

Enocencio said his company adheres to Hawaiian cultural practices regarding the land “and we do want to share the cultural part.”

“We only do it on certain days; that way, the forest can rest,” he said. He said lava tour companies are overrunning Kalapana “with so much and too much people down there.” He added he hopes Wao Kele doesn’t get overrun with people “taking all the resources from there.”

He said he applied for a permit to conduct commercial activity in the natural area reserve.

“We’re awaiting approval for it,” he said.

The fire department said the incident occurred about 3.5 miles from the trailhead, but Enocencio said his GPS coordinates indicated it was probably more like 2.8 miles.

Lum said he didn’t know where the hikers were from, but Enocencio said the woman and her family are from Mexico.

“What happened was that she hurt her ankle out in the field,” Enocencio said. “From there, we called and scheduled a helicopter company to go ahead and come out and pick her up. But she didn’t want to, so they actually called the rescue on their cells.”

Enocencio said the woman was only “about a quarter-mile” from the lava flow when she said she couldn’t go any further.

“The rest of the family, everybody else except the woman’s husband, who stayed with her, before they were flown out, they went to see the lava … and then we brought them back to where she was so we could give (Fire Rescue) the GPS coordinates,” he said. Enocencio said there were actually three guides on the tour and one stayed with the woman and the husband “the whole time” while the others escorted the family to the lava.

Enocencio pointed to Ahiu Hawaii’s lava tour reviews on the website tripadvisor.com, which awarded the company a certificate of excellence this year. Out of 107 user reviews, 90 rated the company’s tour “excellent,” 11 rated it “very good,” while three gave it an “average” rating, one “poor” and two “terrible” — with the company receiving a better than 4.5-rating out of a possible five.

“We encourage people to read the tripadvisor reviews because they put everything on top of there,” he said. “We go over so much different safety things before we go out and we let them know that it is hard work. It’s not something that just anybody can do. And that is why we had three guides who went out on the tour.

“When people want to turn around for whatever (reason), we want to make sure we accommodate them to make it easier for people. We don’t want to push people. They had an option from many different points to turn around. … But it was actually that one person who decided to keep going and that is when she sprained her ankle. She did say that her ankle was getting sore. Our guide said we could bring her out, but she said that she wanted to see the lava.”

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune- herald.com.