SwiftBlog

Maui firefighters mop up at the Hawaiian Dredging base yard in Puamana on Friday morning. -- The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

WAILUKU — As Hurricane Lane approached Maui County from the south, firefighters battled three brush fires in a nearly 10-hour span from Maalaea to Kaanapali on Thursday night and Friday morning.

No cause was identified for the blazes that together charred more than 2,000 acres, fire officials reported during a news media briefing. Hundreds of people were evacuated, and most were allowed to return to their homes by mid-afternoon.

As of 2 p.m., fire either damaged or destroyed at least seven West Maui structures, including homes, officials said. With Lane moving closer to Maui, interim Fire Chief Lionel Montalvo said crews were trying to control the fires as soon as possible, before stronger winds with Lane getting closer made them more difficult to fight.

“That’s the concern,” he said after the briefing at the Kalana O Maui building in Wailuku. “Unpredictable wind patterns.”

Battalion Chief Michael Werner told reporters the first fire was reported at 9:44 p.m. Thursday in the Maalaea area, and it burned about 30 acres. That fire was 100 percent contained, he said.

Windswept flames and smoke rush toward a pair of luxury Launiupoko homes Friday morning. -- The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

Then, at 1 a.m. Friday, a fire in the vicinity of Lahaina’s Kauaula Valley was reported. It blackened 1,500 acres, and it was 40 percent contained Friday afternoon, Werner said.

Although the fire neared Lahainaluna High School, it did not burn the oldest school west of the Rockies.

Then, at 7:28 a.m., a fire broke out in Kaanapali. It was estimated at 800 acres and 100 percent contained.

The only reported injury was to a woman from Kauaula Valley who sustained burns to her arms and legs. She was medivaced to Oahu early Friday morning.

After initially remaining grounded because of windy conditions, the Fire Department’s Air One helicopter was able to make water drops later in the day after weather conditions improved, officials said.

Parked next to a Lahainaluna High School portable classroom, a firefighter directs a jet of water onto a brush fire burning next to the school’s cafeteria. -- The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

Fire officials estimated that 75 firefighters responded to the three fires.

Maui County crews and personnel from private companies including Hawaii Dredging Construction Co. and Goodfellow Bros. helped fight the fires.

Maui Police Chief Tivoli Faaumu said police have officers and officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Parks Service and National Guard who would go to Kauaula Valley to do damage assessments and check on residents.

Hawaiian Tel customers were unable to make phone calls in the Lahaina area during the fires, police said. And, cellphone service was sporadic.

The fire affected emergency calls to the Police Department’s Central Dispatch because fiber optics in the fire area were damaged, Faaumu said. But, because of redundancy built into the system, 911 dispatch was able to function.

Weary, soot-stained firefighters are shuttled to a hot spot flaring in a gulch next to the Lahainaluna High School cafeteria Friday morning. -- The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

The fiber optics were repaired, which addressed a problem with cellphone and land line telephone service in West Maui, Mayor Alan Arakawa said.

If things got worse, the Police Department would be able to divert some calls to Molokai Police, Faaumu said.

Arakawa thanked Gov. David Ige and FEMA for providing pallets of food and water.

Arakawa said county officials were worried that the fire would cut off West Maui, so they asked for help.

Herman Andaya Jr., the administrator for the county Emergency Management Agency, said the Hyatt Regency in Kaanapali accommodated evacuees in its ballroom until it was full.

After a short, steady rain and slackening of the winds around 11 a.m., the smoke clears to reveal the extent of the fast-running brush fire above Lahaina and Puamana Friday. With nearly all of what used to be sugar cane and more recently grass and brush burned away or tamed by firefighters, most of the smoke comes from the high forest above the former plantation lands. -- The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

At least one Lahaina church took in evacuees, along with some other churches on the island.

Earlier reports from witnesses indicated that the Kauaula fire raced downhill, grew rapidly from 3 to 300 acres and threatened the mauka side of Lahaina town. Police evacuated more than 100 homes in the Puamana Subdivision as a precaution and advised people to leave their homes along Punakea Loop and Lahainaluna Road.

At least 10 fire companies responded to the scene of the blaze, with then-Category 2 Hurricane Lane approaching from the south.

For hours, Honoapiilani Highway remained closed in both directions, isolating the resort-laden West Maui community from the rest of the island. As of around 9:30 a.m., however, Honoapiilani reopened, but Kahekili Highway remained closed in the Lahaina-bound direction, officials said.

At least two dozen people who had sought shelter from Hurricane Lane were moved early Friday morning to the Lahaina Civic Center because of the fire.

Around 500 people were seeking shelter at the civic center later in the morning, Maui County spokesman Rod Antone said. There were 300 people inside the center and 200 outside in vehicles, he said.

A portion of the fire was located near the Sue D. Cooley Stadium on the Lahainaluna campus. Around 9:15 a.m., trees were still smoldering. The stadium and high school campus did not sustain fire damage.

Around 9:25 p.m., firefighters also battled a brush fire in a gulch next to the Lahainaluna cafeteria.

Homes burned on the Maalaea side of Lahainaluna Road near a baseyard used by Hawaiian Dredging Construction Co. The baseyard was burned, but it appeared that heavy equipment on the site was not damaged.

A worker at the civic center reported seeking flames and smoke from another, separate, fire in Kaanapali. That report came in at 7:30 a.m.

With the hurricane approaching, Lahaina resident Paul Laub had left his oceanfront home on Front Street and was staying at a friend’s guest place in Launiupoko.

At about 1:30 a.m. Friday, “I could see all this red,” he said.

“I said, ‘This isn’t good.’ It turned out to be the fire,” Laub said. “We packed up and left Launiupoko.”

With Honoapiilani Highway closed in the Lahaina direction, he drove to Kahului and spent the night in a shelter at the Maui High School gym.

West Maui state Rep. Angus McKelvey, who lives in Launiupoko, said neighbors woke him at 2 or 2:30 a.m. Friday. 

“The sky was all lit up red and orange,” he said.

He said he could see the fire “marching down the hill toward us and up the mountain.”

“It looked like it was backing off,” he said. “Then all of a sudden,” at about 4 a.m., police showed up to evacuate residents.

“It was literally, like, bam, ‘OK, get up and go. Evacuate, flee now.’ “

He said the wind was whipping through the valley, creating little tornados. “It was grabbing the smoke from the fire,” he said. “It was pretty wild.”

McKelvey estimated that 100 people, including his 92-year-old mother, were evacuated from the Launiupoko area. He and some others decided to wait in their cars near an emergency staging area until emergency workers said residents could return to their homes, at least temporarily.

“The pre-storm prep came in handy. We had the cars gassed up,” said McKelvey, who waited in his car with his dog and cat.

At about 8:30 a.m., he was at home with no power, ready to leave again if conditions changed. “It looks like it’s starting to come under control,” at least in the Launiupoko area, he said. “It’s running out of area to burn and the wind is beating it back.”

He said neighbors who tried to drive to Lahaina were stopped by fire burning down toward Honoapiilani Highway. “The fire just kept marching toward Lahaina, then jumped the highway,” McKelvey said.

From a distance, he said he could see what looked like a house burning “like a Roman candle.”

Barbara Potts, a resident of the Aina Nalu condominium in Lahaina, said she received a phone call around 1:30 a.m. from her sister, Kathy Ramey, who lives near Puamana. She told Potts to get ready to evacuate because of the fire.

Potts went outside to watch the fire, and “finally, it looked like it was getting close.”

The Aina Nalu condominium is on Wainee Street, and the closest cross street is Dickenson Street.

Potts said she hoped the fire would be less threatening, but “it kept getting worse and worse.” The smoke was “pretty bad,” she said.

Finally, she left her condominium around 5 a.m., and as she was driving out of town “there were embers flying all over the place. It looked pretty dangerous.”

At the time, there was wind from the hurricane, but no rain.

The wind would “get really strong, then it would die down, and it would change directions a lot,” Potts said.

She checked into the Kaanapali Shores condominium where she worried about her sister and her condo unit.

She said she tried to text and call her sister but couldn’t get through.

“It’s nerve-wracking,” Potts said. “I haven’t slept all night.

. . . I’m tired but I can’t sleep.”

McKelvey said the fire demonstrated the need for a second route between West Maui and Central Maui.

“This underscores the broken record that keeps playing over and over again, having one road in and out. You need two highways. This kind of proves it. That’s the only thing people will say after it’s all said and done.”

Initially, Honoapiilani Highway was closed in only the westbound direction between Shaw Street in Lahaina and Maalaea. Later, the highway was closed in both directions. It reopened as of 9:30 a.m.

Police reported at 3:29 a.m. that Kahekili Highway Lahaina-bound was closed because of the fire. The highway remained closed as of 6:30 p.m.

Motorists were advised to avoid the area.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com. Staff Writers Lila Fujimoto and Brian Perry contributed to this report.

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

The Maui News Maui County Department of Finance Director Scott Teruya was placed on administrative leave on last ...

Holy Innocents Episcopal Church, formerly on Front Street in Lahaina Town and destroyed by the fire, announced the ...

Yesterday, February 7, 2024, would have been my father’s 92nd birthday. I won’t wish him a “Happy Heavenly ...

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7rq3UoqWer6NjsLC5jqecsKtfobykrctmpZ6vo2R%2FcX2XaGdxZ6eeu6W%2FjLCfoqhdqr1uw8Ssq2alkaq2brLIq5ysZw%3D%3D