Crater Road Fire, a bird’s eye view: Stamping out hot spots in rough terrain

The Crater Road fire at Haleakalā has burned about 575 acres, and was 80% contained at last report. (Updated at 10 a.m., July 16, 2024).

“Containment is when you have dozer breaks, some kind of fire line around the perimeter. Controlled, or what some people call extinguished, is when the fire is completely out and you can walk away from it,” said Lance DeSilva, Forest Management Supervisor, DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife.

DeSilva said he hopes to get things settled down by Wednesday, “But we’ll stay out here as long as we have to,” he said.

Firefighters have had to deal with access issues, very dry conditions and relative humidity down to the 20s. “Normally, when we’re fighting fires in town or on other side of the islands, we get them at 60%, 50%; but we’re dealing with teens and 20s when it comes to relative humidity, so hot temperatures and windy conditions,” he said.

Crews have also been focused on a eucalyptus patch at the mauka side of the fire where crews were unable to establish dozer breaks due to inaccessible terrain and geological features.

“It just made it very difficult for the dozers to get around it… and with the dry conditions, the gusty winds blew some embers out of the forest and [the fire] got into the scrub lands. When you got spotting, you have to be proactive. So the contract crews did a great job at constructing firebreaks. I mean, they put a lot of fire breaks and a lot of work in,” said DeSilva.

DLNR crews say the fire made it to the southern flank, to Hāpapa Gulch a few days ago.

According to DeSilva, there have been about 30 online ground crews working the fire, with about five air support assets.

“Their main goal was to get their tools on the ground with some water and try and what we call ground and pound and mop up. It’s the dirty work that has to be done, but that’s a crucial part of it. So they’ve been working really hard, hiking in really far along with the other agency crews—so everybody’s doing their part,” he said.