About 100 firefighters contained most of a stubborn blaze Wednesday that scorched at least 1,200 acres in Waianae and Lualualei valleys during three days.
Honolulu fire Capt. Terry Seelig said firefighters worked until dark Wednesday and did not plan to return today unless the fire flares up again.
However, on state land, where the city department has no jurisdiction, the fire is still burning.
Seelig said the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife reported the fire was only about 30 percent contained in the Waianae Kai Forest Reserve. The fire burned about 400 acres in the reserve, a state official said.
Seelig said state crews planned to return to the reserve today.
So far, the only damage reported was to a hale used as a classroom at Kaala Farms Cultural Learning Center on Waianae Valley Road and some orchid hothouses on Haleahi Road, Seelig said. Damage estimates were not available.
No one has been injured since the fire began at Lualualei Naval Magazine at 1:05 p.m. Monday and spread into the adjacent valleys.
Agnes Tauyan, Navy spokeswoman, said federal firefighters determined the blaze started near Radford Street and Kolekole Road, but the cause remained under investigation. She said federal firefighters planned to stay overnight to monitor the fire.
More than 70 city firefighters joined more two dozen federal and state Department of Land and Natural Resources firefighters Wednesday in trying to put out the largest wildfire of the year on Oahu.
The state also contracted a private helicopter to work with a Marine Corps and a city helicopter to drop water on the blaze.
The fire had two fronts Wednesday — along the back of Waianae Valley into the forest reserve and another on the side of the ridge closer to Waianae Valley Road.
Honolulu firefighters were forced to divert personnel and equipment from near the Waianae forest reserve at 9:30 a.m. to extinguish a brush fire on Piliuka Place in Waianae Valley that consumed three acres.
Seelig said the cause of the Piliuka fire was under investigation and it was not related to the wildfire on the other side of the valley.
Close-burning fire or heavy smoke prompted authorities to ask some residents deep in Waianae Valley near Haleahi Road to evacuate two days in a row. Nine people took refuge at a Red Cross Shelter at Waianae District Park Tuesday night and five stayed at the shelter on Monday. The evacuation notice was canceled Wednesday morning.
Fire companies remained overnight Monday and Tuesday, monitoring the fire on the ridge of the Waianae Mountain Range and putting out hot spots that endangered houses and businesses in the two valleys.
Seelig said one flare-up threatened a house on Haleahi Road Tuesday night.
Butch DeTroye, manager of the Kaala Farms Cultural Learning Center on Waianae Valley Road, said the fire destroyed an A-frame grass hale Tuesday that had been used as a classroom.
The fire also destroyed half of a two-mile pipeline that supplies water to Kaala Farms’ taro fields on its 98-acre property.
DeTroye said he was forced to leave the area Tuesday morning before the fire swept through his property.
Firefighters were able to save a kitchen facility, but not the grass hale, which was 30 feet high.
DeTroye said a stream that borders the Waianae Kai Forest Reserve probably prevented the fire from creeping down the mountain into the nature preserve, home to native koa, sandalwood and aalii.
State land department firefighters were trying to make sure the fire doesn’t reach the top of a ridge where endangered plants and native tree snails live.
———
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
