PUKALANI, Hawaii (KHON2) — MEMA has issued an evacuation for residents near the Pukalani fire.
The Maui Police Department started going door-to-door to notify residents at 3:20 p.m.
Homes on Akalani Loop and Kalialani Circle are evacuated. There are no other evacuations at this tme, according to MEMA, but they did alert residents near Palalani Street to stay vigilant and to avoid the area, if possible.
Evacuees were directed to the Hannibal Tavares Community Center in Pukalani.
Hawaiian Electric told KHON2 that 2,500 customers were affected by a non-PSPS outage in the Pukalani area. A secondary outage, affecting 2,000 customers, is in effect in Makawao, Kula and Olinda/Piiholo area. The secondary outage was at the request of first responders as part of their response efforts.
The fire was initially reported at 2:55 p.m. in a gulch off Palalani Street. MEMA partially activated the EOC at that time.
MFD is fighting the fire with three engines, one wildland engine, one tanker and two aircraft.
Crews were getting a handle on the fire, according to a 3:45 p.m. MFD post to social media but said that the fire was in a deep gulch with very steep access.