(BIVN) – The Hawaiʻi National Guard provided Hawaiʻi County with helicopter support under Operation Hoʻopauahi to help fight the Kawaihae Road fire on July 26.
According to the National Guard (HING), a Black Hawk helicopter conducted 22 fire-suppressing missions, totaling over 14,520 gallons of water dropped on the fire.
The wildland fire burned hundreds of acres in South Kohala and forced the evacuation of the Kawaihae Village Subdivision overnight. The evacuation order was lifted the next day.
The HING Black Hawk supported the firefighting effort until the mission ended, which was when the Hawaiʻi Fire Department said the fire was at 65% contained and favorable winds were in the forecast.
“The Hawaiʻi National Guard’s Operation Hoʻopauahi was on display Sunday to support Hawaiʻi County in fighting a wildfire,” said Hawaiʻi Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. Stephen Logan. “Our Black Hawk responded immediately, worked alongside the Hawaiʻi Fire Department and coordinated fire suppression water bucket drops where they were needed most.”
Operation Hoʻopauahi (to extinguish fire) “keeps air crews ready to provide aerial firefighting capabilities to augment county and state level first responder elements”, HING says. “Three HING helicopters are postured to fly and quickly support any county in the state, which increases capacity to contain and extinguish a fire in its early stage.”
On June 4, Governor Josh Green announced that he and the Commander in Chief of the Hawai‘i National Guard signed an emergency proclamation authorizing the Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. Stephen F. Logan, to activate the National Guard when needed. The State said Logan would use that authorization to initiate the second year of Operation Hoʻopauahi. The proclamation covers June 1 through November 30.
“For the second year, we are taking steps to ensure Hawaiʻi is prepared and the valuable time needed for response is accelerated,” said Governor Green. “This proclamation will provide funding for full flight operations, refueling and maintenance support during the wildfire season starting in June. The Hawaiʻi National Guard may also leverage units performing Annual Training this month to quickly and effectively respond.”
“Working with the Hawaiʻi Fire Department last wildfire season enabled us to get into a real good rhythm for this Kawaihae fire and we just got to work,” said Chief Warrant Officer Four Paul Angeleo, a Black Hawk pilot who supported the recent mission in South Kohala. “The coordination and communication with all of our partners made this mission easy, safe and effective.”
