WAIKOLOA, Hawaii (AP) -- Evacuated residents of Waikoloa Village were allowed to return to their homes as firefighters managed to gain the upper hand on a stubborn blaze that has scorched more than 25,000 acres.
Only a few of the estimated 5,000 people who had been evacuated returned Wednesday. Those who did complained of a nasty smell and a layer of ash across this community on the northwest coast of the Big Island.
''This is like a ghost town today,'' said Kris Kosa-Correia, principal of Waikoloa Elementary School, where scores of evacuees found temporary refuge. The fire had scorched undergrowth up to 20 feet from her own home's door and left ash inside the condominium apartment.
''It's stinky inside,'' Kosa-Correia said.
The evacuation order had affected 75 percent of the town's 6,500 residents, said Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency acting administrator Lanny Nakano. The blaze started Monday as a small brush fire.
More than 150 personnel were called in to battle the blaze, including crews from Hilo and Kona, as well as the recruit class. Helicopters continued to make water drops through the day.
''They got it at 80 percent, as far as containment goes,'' Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency acting administrator Lanny Nakano said Wednesday afternoon.
The Waikoloa fire is one of the largest ever recorded on the Big Island.
Another fire burning in North Kohala jumped Akoni Pule Highway at several points and burned all the way to the ocean. The blaze, which covered 2,500 acres, forced the evacuation of one house, but it was saved by firefighters who cut a fire break around the structure.
On the U.S. mainland, officials in Washington state said residents of about 75 homes who had evacuated Monday when a 1,000-acre wildfire closed in were allowed to return home Wednesday.
Large fires also were active Wednesday in Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Utah, the National Interagency Fire Center reported. So far this year, wildfires have charred 4.7 million acres, compared with 5.5 million at the same time last year, the center said.
On the Net:
National Interagency Fire Center: www.nifc.gov
