Haliimaile Brush Fire

On our weekly supply run to Kahului, I spotted clouds above that were very atypical of Maui. Specifically, they were brown. Sure enough, these clouds were smoke coming from a brush fire a few miles out of town. Ultimately, 300 acres were burned but it was put out before any homes were endangered.

I was texting with a local friend, who told me that this has happened every summer since they stopped growing sugar cane here. "The soil is dead," he explained, with very few nutrients. This allows the growth of only scrubby, dry low bushes. "And every summer," he continued, some moron pitches a cigarette butt out his car window, and we have a fire."

We wound up waiting in line on the highway for an hour before we could head back home to Hana. But we made it, and a beautiful full moon was there to greet us. (Along with two dogs!)