As bulldozers finally connected a firebreak around the Big Island’s largest wildland fire to date, four Parker Ranch employees on the frontlines of the blaze took a moment Friday to reflect on the prior week.
Parker Ranch Livestock Operations Manager Keoki Wood recounted the incident from its start several miles up Mana Road around 11 a.m. July 30 through Friday morning when he received word the 47,000-acre wildland fire was fully contained. Two homes were lost in the fire that stretched from Waimea to Waikoloa and forced the evacuation of thousands. Its cause remains under investigation.
“Whenever there’s a fire on the ranch or a brush fire, we always try to hit it as hard as we can and as quick as we can and so that was our response,” Wood said, “and we quickly realized that we were going to be overwhelmed.”
Fanned by high winds, with gusts reaching 40 mph, the fire quickly spread through the dry pasture, requiring the Hawaii Fire Department and resources to join the battle.
“Then the resources from the county had to be redeployed to protect structures and homes,” Wood said, noting the ranch’s staff continued to fight the fire with its lightly trained department and minimal equipment. The county’s redeployment was necessary, and that splitting up was “critical” to saving lives and reducing additional property damage.
“The guys did a wonderful job with what little equipment they had until the ‘dozers came,” he said.
From there, Parker Ranch’s main job was to service and spot for the bulldozer operators so they could dig a defensive line around the ever-expanding fire’s five fronts.
“For three days, a lot of them didn’t shutdown, they just changed operators,” said Wood, who’s been with Parker Ranch for about 21 years. “And, it’s very isolated up in the mountain and they still need fuel, they need food — that was our job: to keep the ‘dozers running as long as they were in there.”
At one point, a total of 17 dozers deployed by the county were working to contain the blaze, including Parker Ranch’s bulldozer.
Gordon Kalaniopio, livestock operations coordinator, was among those assisting the bulldozers, which were tasked with cutting firebreaks in unfamiliar territory and sometimes in the dark.
“This is the biggest I ever seen,” said Kalaniopio who’s worked the ranch for 38 years, during which he’s seen many fires, big and small.
He shuttled three dozers from the highway to the fire, directing the operators around critical infrastructure and potential danger while opening gates and cutting fences as needed.
“I’m so lucky I used to take care of that area so I was kind of familiar with the area going through at night,” he said.
There were a “couple of times that it was kind of critical” dealing with the out-of-control fire, he said.
“But then you just have to make sure you make the right decision because it’s right there,” Kalaniopio said, explaining the key was to “try not to get yourself trapped in where the fire can wrap around you.”
Derek Park, a mechanic for Parker Ranch’s maintenance and fire departments, was among those servicing vehicles working the fire.
“It was a lot of stuff and I had to make up a makeshift service truck, thinking in my head what every possible breakdown is going to happen in the field and how do to preload it and be ready to go in the truck so that when somebody calls, I’m on my way, change them out and then head back to the shop, refuel the truck up, reset it up and go back out again,” he said.
Park commended his fellow workers, each of whom wore many different hats, noting the level of communication amid the chaos was “incredible.”
“Cellphones, thank god for cell phones and we’ve got a real good team of cowboys and maintenance workers,” said Livestock Business Operations Manager Jacob Tavares. … “Communication was as good as I’ve ever seen in any operation over those four days and that was critical.
“The guys on the ground that were doing this coordination, not only making sure we got people where they needed to be but getting the information to relay back decisions that needed to be made. That was critical and you really its just hard to even wrap your mind around how quickly and how effectively they were able to do that,” he continued
Wood said the ranch’s cowboys in the field were instrumental in moving thousands of animals of out the fire’s way. A total of 2,500 cows of all ages had to be moved and “crowded” with 3,000 other cows.
“The cowboys, normally they are out on their ATVs checking the water and making sure everything is good, so when they saw the smoke and how fast it was going, they pretty much they knew which ones they had to move right away and just started teaming up and getting it done,” he said.
Wood said the cowboys went as long as they could, with some reporting flames were “right on them” at which point Wood stated he told them to abandon the operation and get out.
Once safe, the cowboys returned to find some of the cattle alive in pockets untouched by flames.
“We’re still picking up strays,” he said. “Every morning we fly with the helicopter and look for animals that we can help out.”
Parker Ranch preliminarily estimated 100 head of cattle may have been lost in the fire that torched 37,000 acres of the ranch’s grazing land.
“The number is probably less than that; we thought that was early on that was a reasonable number just to have a number but it looks like its much lower than that,” clarified Dutch Kuyper, Parker Ranch CEO and president.
Kuyper, who’s been at the helm of the ranch for over a decade, thanked his employees Friday morning during a debriefing.
“I told the employees, ‘all of our jobs are difficult and some days are more difficult than others and sometimes you need to reach for inspiration to get through those days,” he said. “I told them that they are my inspiration.”
He also expressed his appreciation for the community and various agencies and assets that were involved in battling the fire.
“The outpouring of support form the community cooking food meals, bringing them to us with notes on the boxes like ‘god bless you’ were amazing,” he said.
Park remembered a special interaction he had with a community member as the then-12,000-acre fire burned out of control late Saturday, July 31, just a day after igniting in pasture up Mana Road.
“It was a pretty intense day during the day and we got out late,” he said, adding he and his wife had already evacuated their home off Old Saddle Road with his wife going to Waikoloa Village and him staying in Waimea with a friend.
Hungry and tired, he went to Foodland for sustenance.
“I was wearing a Parker Ranch shirt and this gentleman came up to me and was asking about the fire and he noticed that I had some bandages and stuff because I received some injuries due to the fire — not burns, just blisters and stuff — and he offered to buy all my stuff,” Park shared. “He was like ‘I’m going buy your dinner, anything that you want in this store – candy bars whatever you want,’ and I just had some small little things, but just that — you know — just that thought process of him to support was great.”