Rash of Vehicle Fires Keep Maui Crews Busy

Photo by Wendy Osher.

Fire crews from Kula, Kahului, and Wailuku responded to a rash of fires involving vehicles believed to have been abandoned during the early morning hours on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016.

At 2:43 a.m. on Tuesday, Kula firefighters responded to a vehicle fire on Pūlehu Road, just above the Y with Omaopio Road. Crews arrived at 2:57 a.m. and found a vehicle fully involved by fire on the shoulder of the road. Firefighters called it extinguished at 3:08 a.m. Its cause was undetermined.

At 3:45 a.m. Tuesday, two simultaneous but separate vehicle fires were reported on East Waikō Road in Waikapū. One was roughly 400 yards west of the Waiʻale Road intersection, and the other was about 300 yards east of the intersection.

At 3:53 a.m., a Kahului engine and tanker crew arrived at the entrance to the former Maui Scrap Metal Co. site east of the Waiʻale Road intersection, and found a vehicle fully engulfed in flames. It was called extinguished at 4:06 a.m., and its cause was undetermined.

At 3:52 a.m., the Wailuku crew found a truck on the shoulder of Waikō Road west of the Waiʻale Road intersection fully engulfed by fire, which was now spreading into the brush.

Firefighters quickly brought the fire under control, but not before it burned a 50 x 200 foot area of brush downwind and caused roughly $3,000 in damages to a nearby fence. The brush and vehicle fires were called extinguished at 4:34 a.m.

A fire investigator determined that that fire was intentionally set and originated in the bed of the truck, where a pile of car tires were believed to have been discarded. The Kahului engine and water tanker assisted the Wailuku crew after they extinguished the vehicle fire further down the street.