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A 33-year-old visitor from Australia fell 50 feet while hiking in Maui’s Waihou Springs Forest Reserve in Olinda on Wednesday and was hospitalized in serious condition.
Makawao firefighters found the man, a Perth resident, at the bottom of a ravine, 20 minutes from the trailhead.
The hiker had lost his footing while walking along a steep ledge near the area known as the “Caves” and fell about 50 feet onto the rocks below. He was hiking with three other friends on the Waihou Springs Trail.
The Maui Fire Department’s primary helicopter was occupied at a brush fire in West Maui at the time, so Air 2, a backup aircraft, was dispatched shortly after it left the West Maui firefighting effort.
At 4:30 p.m. Air 2 airlifted the man to paramedics at a landing zone on Olinda Road. He was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center in serious but stable condition.
Fire damages vacant house on Hawaii isle
A fire heavily damaged a vacant tri-level house in Pahoa on Thursday, causing $136,800 in damage, Hawaii County firefighters said.
The fire was reported at 3:38 p.m., and firefighters arrived at 3:42 p.m. to find 50 to 70 percent of the house engulfed in flames, fire officials said. The fire was brought under control at about 4 p.m. and extinguished at 5:33 p.m.
Fire officials reported that some walls and part of the roof had collapsed.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.