A brushfire on the Big Island that burned about 25 acres was partially contained Thursday night, but not before the large fire prompted precautionary evacuations for some homeowners at O’okala.
Hawaii County officials said the emergency shelter at the Paauilo gym will remain open through Friday morning.
The precautionary evacuation order was in place for an area of approximately 200 homes, some homeowners like Pastor Phil Underhile said he could see the flames approaching his property.
Underhile said, “It started getting right in front of my house and the wind was blowing strong and the fire was in if you can see down right on the other side of that fire engine.”
Underhile said fire crews worked to put out the flames as soon as they inched closer to houses, but because of the wind, those flames at times outpaced firefighters.