Fire Crews Respond to 2 Brush Fires Sunday Night

Fire crews from Kahului and Lahaina extinguished two small brush fires late Sunday night and early Monday morning.

At 11:11 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 22, 2017, Kahului firefighters responded to a brush fire reported on Pulehu Road.

Kahului crews arrived on scene at 11:23 p.m., and found a 10 x 200 foot-long strip of grass and brush burning next to the roadway about a mile mauka of the Central Maui Landfill on Pulehu Road.

The fire was extinguished at 11:51 p.m.

The cause of the fire was undetermined. No structures were threatened.

At 5:06 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 23, fire crews in Lahaina responded to a brush fire on the Lahaina Bypass near Hokiokio Place.

Firefighters arrived on scene at 5:16 a.m. and found a quarter-acre of brush on fire next to Kauaula stream, 100 yards mauka of the Lahaina Bypass.

Fire Services Chief Edward Taomoto said crews had the fire under control at 5:54 a.m. and extinguished at 7 a.m.

Taomoto said the fire burned a homeless encampment next to the stream and surrounding brush.

“The cause appeared to be from a cooking fire within the encampment that got away and spread to the nearby brush,” Taomoto said. “There was no one around when crews arrived.”

There were no injuries and no residential structures were threatened.

Two companies and a water tanker from Lahaina responded to the brush fire.