Since last Tuesday John and I have been following this tragic fire that has broken out on the slopes of Haleakala... of our new island home. Our house is on the other side of the mountain and is in no danger. The fire is in POLIPOLI SPRING STATE RECREATION AREA, a forrest of giant redwoods and eucalyptus and many more tree and plants. This is the first place we went hiking on our very first trip to Maui in 2001. Now in its eigth day, the fire on state forest reserve land increased to 2,291 acres in perimeter. The cause of the fire is still undetermined. DLNR officials suspect an illegal campfire at the upper Waiohuli trail may have ignited the forest fire. SO SAD.
We received this image and note from our realtor on Maui this morning.
Dear Friends, Both Local and Afar,
Much to my GREAT sadness, our beautiful mountain is under siege, with little hope for any immediate recovery unless we get some much need RAIN. It hasnʻt rained on Maui for well over two months now, and you can see by the blue sky below, we need a real miracle here. The helicopters were thwarted by cloud cover the first 3 days of the fire (which has been raging since Tuesday), and now their water buckets are like teeny thimbles, unable to be truly effective. The firefighters are exhausted, and feeling like the only thing they can do now is bulldoze some firebreaks in hopes of saving homes, because
the poor forest is largely demolished, at this point.
Some upper Kula homes have already been evacuated, and weʻre not sure what is going to happen next, because wind, weather and fire are all so unpredictable . Other than smoke and ash, Bill and I donʻt feel terribly impacted, but we have many close friends who live directly under the fireʻs current path. Please give a prayer for our beautiful jewel - the slopes of
Haleakala (and all it inhabitants including the precious wildlife and native fauna).
Maui residents: if you want current updates, go to:
CURRENT UPDATES FROM mauicounty.gov
Youʻll see a column on the right for civil defense matters, and the fire is the first link. They seem to update this page once or twice a day. They also offer a phone number for recorded information at the bottom of the fire link page.
2 comments:
Egads!
Here in the forestlands we get our fair share of summer fires. The last one burned out of control for almost a week, destroying thousands of acres - and worrisomely (a word?) close to our home.
But a fire in tropical Maui! Where the air and lush greenery is always moist and rainfall should be expected at any given moment during any season of the year...all I could think was....global warming...
AH YES... YOU ARE MOST LIKELY GUESSING RIGHT ABOUT THE GLOBAL WARMING. John and I have hiked in that forest several times and have been rained on everytime. At least they have had rain the last few days and have it pretty well contained.
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