Operations & Training

Nearly 5,000 People Ordered to Evacuate in Hawaii as Wildfires Approach Town

Aug. 3, 2005

Nearly 5,000 people in Hawaii were ordered to evacuate their homes and the only road connecting this town to the rest of the Big Island was closed as a spreading brush fire approached

Residents armed with garden hoses assist a firefighter along a dirt maintenance road as fire threatens the Waikoloa Village housing subdivision on the Big Island of Hawaii, Tuesday, Aug 2, 2005. The dirt road served as a fire break and kept the fire from burning several nearby houses.

WAIKOLOA, Hawaii (AP) -- Nearly 5,000 people in Hawaii were ordered to evacuate their homes and the only road connecting this town to the rest of the Big Island was closed as a spreading brush fire approached, officials said.

No injuries were reported and officials had not confirmed whether any structures had burned, Hawaii County Fire Capt. Felix Asia said.

The evacuation order was in effect for 75 percent of the town's 6,500 residents, Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency acting administrator Lanny Nakano said. Officials turned a community center and elementary school into evacuation centers, while a local resort opened its ballroom to evacuees and another school offered dorm rooms.

The fire was burning out of control Tuesday evening, consuming more than 25,000 acres (10,000 hectares) along the Kohala Coast on the west side of the island. The only road connecting the village to the rest of the island was closed and parents were asked to pick up their children from school because buses weren't allowed through the area.

Nearly 150 county and federal personnel were working through the night to battle the blaze, with the help of four helicopters and eight bulldozers, Nakano said.

The blaze started Monday as a small brush fire, Battalion Chief Curtis Matsui said.

Meanwhile, in Washington state, officials said residents of about 75 homes who had evacuated Monday when a wildfire closed in would be allowed to return home Wednesday.

However, residents of another 70 homes were under notice that they might have to evacuate in the area near Lake Wenatchee in central Washington, where a blaze has burned nearly 1,000 acres (400 hectares). No injuries have been reported.

Large fires also were active Tuesday 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 (1.9 million hectares), compared with 5.5 million (2.2 million hectares) at the same time last year, the center said.