A firefighter-turned-farmer’s foresight and quick thinking saved lives and property Aug. 8
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - HNN Investigates has obtained exclusive footage of one of the most significant firefights on Aug. 8, 2023 — and most people know nothing about it. Officials say the foresight of a single farmer likely saved an entire neighborhood and countless lives.
The sequence of events didn’t play out in Lahaina or even on Maui, but on Hawaii Island.
Dave Donald, 75, remembers every moment of that day.
“You couldn’t see anything. The fire was everywhere. Some of these flames are 80 feet tall,” he said.
“I couldn’t take the heat. And it was coming towards me.”
Donald says initially he grabbed a garden hose to try and douse the flames. But he quickly realized it was no match for the wind-blown inferno that had already claimed two neighboring properties.
With his cell phone in hand, Donald recorded what was happening around him.
“So, I’m searching because I hear a noise. And the camera sees actually better than I was seeing. You can see there were lights here. These were the first fire trucks arriving on the property,” he said.
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Donald guided firefighters up the hill, where Howard Hall — a former firefighter turned farmer — and his son battled flames on the verge of swallowing the family home.
“Here’s this fire coming. Roaring down on top of us,” said Hall.
At the same time, multiple fires burned across Hawaii Island.
“By God, the Hawaii Island Fire Department really stepped up,” Hall said. “We had maybe 12 to 14 fire trucks on this property fighting to stop it from getting over there.”
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Hall’s farm is off-grid, located in the Lalamilo Farm lots.
If flames reached the state property that borders his property, he says there would have been no way to knock down the ferocious blaze before it incinerated six miles of grassland between his farm and Waikoloa Village, putting the entire community nearly 3,700 homes in the direct path of the fire.
It was the fire department’s last stand.
“It would take 10-15 minutes maximum (for the fire) to reach Waikoloa,” Donald said.
But unlike most property owners, Hall had prepared for this, installing three strategically placed standpipes next to his house and barn more than 30 years ago.
The vertical pipes are connected to the farm’s high pressure irrigation system.
“On this end are the threads, Pacific Coast thread,” Hall said. “And I welded these up with old fire hoses.”
Hall’s set-up supplied the water needed to hold off the fire until trucks arrived.
But that’s not all it’s good for. Hall said, “This is an adapter I made up that changes my PCT to NHT 21 and the reason is because that’s what our County Fire Department uses.”
With the closest fire hydrant nearly a half mile away, Hall’s standpipes allowed the fire department to refill its tankers in a fraction of the time. The grueling fire fight dragged on for 17 hours, but in the end Hawaii County firefighters alongside the farmers staved off the flames.
“And it wasn’t until afterwards it was like holy cow. Had that gotten over – Waikoloa would have gone up pretty much like Lahaina did,” Hall said.
The head of Hawaii County’s Civil Defense Agency believes that kind of public private collaboration is a major reason why Waikoloa Village is still standing.
“We could have been in the same situation,” said Talmadge Magno. “We had our hands full.”
Today, Howard Hall is leading the effort to help his neighbors install standpipes on their land.
“You get prepared and you do things like this,” Hall said. “But you hope you never have to use it.”
Hall, Donald and others also stress the importance of proper land management, sharing this stark reminder: If it’s your fuel, it’s your fire.
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