Brush fire burns 6 acres near Kaanapali golf course | News, Sports, Jobs

May 2024 · 3 minute read

Smoke rises from a 6-acre brush fire near the Kaanapali Kai Course on Thursday afternoon. SUTEE NITAKORN photos

Approximately 6 acres of brush burned north of the Lahaina Civic Center and came close to the Kaanapali Kai Course Thursday afternoon, according to the Maui Fire Department and a golf course official.

The fire broke out around 2:15 p.m. Thursday mauka of Honoapiilani Highway and above Hanakao’o Beach Park.

The Fire Department said around 3:30 p.m. Thursday that crews were conducting mop up operations and that the fire was about 80 percent contained.

Maui police said they evacuated Hanakao’o and Wahikuli Wayside Park. Honoapiilani Highway at Leialii Parkway were closed due to the fire for part of the afternoon. Southbound lanes were later opened, and as of 5:50 p.m. the road had been opened in both directions, police said on the department’s Facebook page.

A brush fire charred about 6 acres in Kaanapali on Thursday afternoon

“Maui Fire Department was right there. Interestingly enough the fire was in between the golf course and the Fire Department (Lahaina station), so it was close to home in a bunch of different ways,” Sutee Nitakorn, director of sales for Kaanapali Golf Courses, told The Maui News on Thursday.

He wasn’t sure how the fire started, but said it was near the second hole on the Kaanapali Kai Course.

“It just seems like a brush fire that got caught up,” Nitakorn said. “Luckily it was towards the end of the day for golf and we didn’t have very many people going out to play. The area was isolated enough that we did not have to divert any golfers.”

“The fire jumped really quick and it got up to the tops of the trees, even the coconut trees.”

Nitakorn said that golf course irrigation water was turned on near the blaze and that he doesn’t believe that any repair will be required for the Kai course.

“The fire burned up right to the edge and even seared all of the brush and the trees right on the edge (of the second hole), but it didn’t affect the golf course at all,” he said. “Really, the first department was right on top of it.”

Engine, ladder and tanker crews from Lahaina all responded to the blaze along with Engine 11 from Napili, Tanker 14 from Wailea, the department’s Air One helicopter and a battalion chief, along with a privately owned bulldozer and a tanker, fire officials said.

Smoke rises from a 6-acre brush fire near the Kaanapali Kai Course on Thursday afternoon. SUTEE NITAKORN photos A brush fire charred about 6 acres in Kaanapali on Thursday afternoon

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