WAI'ANAE — Firefighters on O'ahu's western coast fought a rash of brushfires yesterday — one of them significant — taxing a department that was already strapped and weary from nearly a week of fighting the North Shore wildfire.

Most of the attention and manpower in Wai'anae was focused on a single blaze that had the potential to threaten homes, said Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. Frank Johnson.

"There was only one significant fire in Wai'anae — the one at the end of Pahe'ehe'e Road," Johnson said.

Still, that rural wildfire required so many firefighters that at one point a fire company from the opposite side of the island was called on to douse a fire near the Wai'anae fire station.

According to Battalion Fire Chief Sigmund Oka, Olomana Engine 39, en route from Windward O'ahu to assist Wai'anae Coast firefighters, paused to extinguish a minor burn near the Wai'anae firehouse because most station personnel were off dousing flames elsewhere.

"I think it was a really small fire because they put it out quickly, and then came back to the bigger fire," Oka said.

That bigger fire, called in at 10:23 a.m., was on the ocean side of a ridge between Lualualei Homestead Road and Wai'anae Valley Road. Some witnesses reported hearing an explosion before seeing smoke and flames, but Honolulu police said it was too soon to know what ignited the flames.

QUICK-SPREADING FIRE

Whatever the cause, firefighters said they had trouble keeping up with the fire line, which rapidly moved up the hillside. Of major concern were rural homes in the potential path of the wind-driven blaze, HFD officials said.

Initially firefighters had hoped to confine the flames to the Pahe'ehe'e Road side of the ridge, said HFD spokesman Capt. Robert Main. But tension mounted when the fire crossed to the Wai'anae Valley Road side of the ridge. At that point, Main said, the department moved rapidly and in force.

"Given the nature of this area, because it's so dry, once it crossed the saddle, if we didn't stop it right here, it's going to run all the way down to the housing," said Main. "That's why we came out here in large numbers."

In all, 11 engines, four tankers, one ladder company, a brush truck, one helicopter and 55 firefighters were called in to stop the brushfire, said Main. Firefighters and equipment worked both sides of the ridge — with tankers and engines lined up on Pahe'ehe'e Road on one side and the narrow paved lane leading to the Pacific Dairy on the other.

ONLY SHACK DAMAGED

Fire damaged one unoccupied shack off Pahe'ehe'e Road, officials said, but no other structures or homes were damaged. Shortly after 2 p.m., the fire was 90 percent contained. Just over 10 acres were scorched, said Main.

He said fire investigators had yet to determine the cause, but considering the dry brush and windy conditions, it could have been anything from a muffler spark to a cigarette butt.

About a half-hour after the ridge fire was under control, a brushfire broke out in the 500 block of Kamokila Boulevard in Kapolei and charred about three acres on a vacant lot owned by the James Campbell Co.

Construction crews working on two different projects helped to fight the fire.

Fifteen firefighters were assisted by crews with two water trucks owned by Delta Construction Co. and one water truck from Paul's Electrical Service. A Delta company front-loader truck also helped clear a path through vegetation for fire trucks, said Jessie Visconde, a foreman for Delta.

That fire was 90 percent contained within an hour, said HFD spokesman Johnson.

Earlier in the day, a crew from the Wai'anae fire station extinguished a fire at Kea'au Beach and another at Ka'ena Point. But Johnson said those, like the one near the fire station, were small and quickly extinguished.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.