Brush Fire Extinguished

August 24, 2005 | In Environment, Development, Journalism |

The fire was mostly out by Monday morning, but hot spots were still burning on Tuesday, probably the larger wood that caught near the ridge. Today crews were still extinguishing the last of the smoldering piles. I went to the edge of the field near the marina today and saw a crew coming back and put out the last one of them. Over 400 acres were burnt accornding to the newspaper. All in all, it was a mostly harmless fire: no people or buildings were threatened, the fire crews got some easy training, only the weeds in the abandoned cane field really got burned, and the forest reserve on the ridge was spared. Here is what it looks like now:

On a related note, almost the exact area in the photo is slated to become a Hawaiian Homeland neighborhood. This is land held in trust for the descendants of the native Hawaiians since the time of the overthrough of the independant Hawaiian nation. Once it is parceled out and utilities are installed, people who can prove at least half-Hawaiian blood can rent the land for $1 per year for a long-term lease and then build their own house. While it is relatively far from shopping and town amenities, it should be a rather low impact development. And I guess the last people you can fault for developping the island are the Hawaiian people.