Big Island Fire Exceeds 3,000 Acres And Still Out Of Control
Hawaii County firefighters can’t access the blaze in a remote and rugged part of the island. They are waiting for it to get to an accessible area to begin containment efforts.
SOUTH POINT, Hawaii — A wildfire broke out in the remote South Point area of the Big Island at approximately 8:30 p.m. Saturday night, and had burned more than 3,000 acres by midday Sunday.
Hawaii County fire officials said it was still not under control by late afternoon. There have been no fatalities and no structures have burned.
The fire is thought to have started near the coastline, although the exact cause has not been determined.
Since South Point is managed by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, it is not subject to county regulations suspending gatherings on the coastline.
The area has been under a red flag warning, and over the Labor Day weekend contingents of concerned residents intercepted cars on South Point Road to ask them to turn back and avoid the area due to the fire danger. But groups of visitors continue coming to South Point, including as many as 20 groups of overnight campers on some nights.
Hawaii County fire crews were working to contain a major wildlands fire near South Point over the weekend.
Peter Serafin/Civil Beat
When the fire broke out Saturday many of these illegal campers packed up and left, but fire officials have not determined that any of them started the blaze.
“At this point, we just don’t know what caused this fire,” said Hawaii County Fire Captain Chris Carvalho.
Carvalho, who had been on the scene all night, said that 19 Hawaii County firefighters responded, aided by additional personnel from the Na’alehu and Discovery Harbor volunteer fire departments.
As of Sunday morning the fire was making its way up the mountain, aided not only by the dry conditions, but by the area’s strong, constant winds (South Point has been a prime location for commercial wind farms).
Currently, the only piece of equipment actively fighting the fire is a single helicopter dropping buckets of water from a makeshift pool filled by a pumper truck. Fire trucks are standing by until the fire reaches a location they can get to.
In the meantime, some ranchers have been cutting barbed wire fences so their cattle will not be trapped as the fire advances. Others are loading horses onto trailers and taken them to safety. Carvalho also said that some ranchers are using their own 300-gallon tanks of water/foam solution to combat the fire.
Sign up for our FREE morning newsletter and face each day more informed.
Before you go
Civil Beat readership has more than doubled in the past nine months. That’s incredible growth for which we’re so grateful.
But for a small nonprofit newsroom that provides free content with no paywall, readership growth alone can’t sustain our journalism. The truth is that less than 1% of our monthly readers are financial supporters.
To remain a viable business model for local news, we need a higher percentage of readers-turned-donors.
Peter Serafin was the editor of Hawaii Island Journal. He worked in Tokyo as a reporter for The Japan Times and Billboard magazine, and has written for numerous other publications both domestically and abroad. He lives on Hawaii Island. Contact Peter at pserafin@civilbeat.org.