NANAKULI — Lifelong resident Jana Kahele has seen plenty of hillside fires in her 59 years in the valley. But this week's inferno, she said yesterday, was the worst.

She has seen them burn for a day, or even a day and a half. This one seemed to have no end.

Yesterday, for the first time since Sunday, Kahele took her 1-year-old grandson, Kekui'ohekeli, for a ride in his red stroller.

"I always take him for a walk," Kahele said, "but there was so much smoke that Monday I told my daughters to take my three grandsons and stay with relatives in town.

"He came home today."

Even as Kahele spoke yesterday, a military helicopter roared over the blackened mountain toting a 1,000-gallon bucket of water.

She was among many valley residents who, for the first time yesterday, started their day without fear of a fire that had forced evacuations, closed roads and came within feet of the homes. It came after months of brushfires, most of which have afflicted the Wai'anae Coast. So far this year, more than 700 brushfires have been recorded on O'ahu.

This week's fire, and another large blaze earlier this summer, combined to burn nearly 6,000 acres of land in the Nanakuli area.

Errol Kane, who was raised on Nanakuli Avenue, a couple of blocks off Farrington Highway, said folks here are used to disasters of every kind.

"This sort of thing is common in Nanakuli," said Kane, an enforcement officer for the Department of Land and Natural Resources. "These people are sick of fires, they're sick of traffic accidents, they're sick of waiting because someone's tearing up the road. I mean, as long as I've lived here there's always been something.

"If there isn't a fire here, there's a fire there. Every other year that mountain burns. If it doesn't burn, then this one on the other side burns — but then, that one already burned a couple of months ago."

Kane agreed with most local residents and O'ahu authorities who say that, as disasters go, this week's Nanakuli brushfire was a standout. For one thing, it lasted longer. It also was a lot bigger — consuming almost 3,000 acres and counting.

"This fire was strange because ... it swept around the whole mountain and went back all the way to Kahe Point," Kane said.

Kahele marveled at the fire's longevity. "It started Sunday, and it's still going."

She said she witnessed the electrical arcing thought to have started the blaze atop the mountain on the Honolulu side of her home on Mano Avenue.

Pointing to a lone electrical utility pole with a tree to the left of it atop the ridge, she said, "It was right there at the top. It looked like a bright light — like a flash, or a spark. And then we started seeing smoke, and then fire, and then it started spreading."

Kahele said her daughter, Momi, ran to the fire station across the street to report the fire. By evening, the blaze was huge and spreading down the mountainside.

Honolulu Electric Co. spokesman Jose Dizon said yesterday that HECO has examined the pole and electrical lines and so far has not found any evidence of the arcing.

"The pole and the lines are all intact," said Dizon, who emphasized that the company is not contradicting what witnesses say they saw. So far, though, the company hasn't "found anything abnormal that could have caused a spark or arc or overheating."

Dizon said the investigation into the incident is continuing.

Nanakuli residents reported seeing dozens of spot fires break out in the valley throughout the day.

The Honolulu Fire Department, which reported the Nanakuli brushfire was contained but not yet under control as of late Tuesday afternoon, said the situation had not changed 24 hours later. From Kahe Point the fire moved up the mountain to Palehua Ridge.

Lawrence "Jay" Adams, 69, who said he has lived in Nanakuli all his life, remembered when the mountains didn't burn so frequently. He recalls when kiawe trees covered the mountains and the entire valley.

"When I (was) young we didn't have these fires," said Adams, who lives across from Nanakuli High and Intermediate School and has a 360-degree view of the valley.

The change came with population growth. As more people moved in, the numbers of fires increased, he said. The fires began to be a routine feature in Nanakuli by the 1970s, he said.

Still, once you've seen enough of them you learn to take all the heat and smoke in stride.

"Now I say, 'Another year, another fire around the homestead,' " Adams said. "For me it's like an annual excitement."

FIREFIGHTERS get $650,000

Firefighters in Honolulu and Maui will get more than $650,000 in combined grant money, Hawai'i Congressman Neil Abercrombie said yesterday.

The money, which will be used for training, equipment, personal protective equipment and modifications to facilities, come from the U.S. Fire Administration, a division of the Department of Homeland Security.

HFD will get $573,816 and the Maui Fire and Public Safety Department will receive $79,278 under the Operations and Firefighter Safety Program, Abercrombie said.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.