This photo provided by the Maui Fire Department shows smoke from a fire burning in Kahikinui, Hawaii on the island of Maui on Sunday, June 15, 2025. Photo courtesy Maui Fire Department

UPDATE: Evacuation orders were lifted as of 7 p.m. Monday, June 16, with local officials citing increased fire containment. Maui police also reopened the closed portion of the Piilani Highway. However, the road will be closed again from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday between mile markers 20 to 41 for firefighting activities. Area motorists are urged to use caution and remain vigilant as firefighting resources will remain in the area.

About 50 residents were evacuated from their homes Sunday as a fast-moving brush fire fueled by strong winds burned 330 acres of Hawaiian homestead lands on Maui.

As of 1 p.m. Monday, the fire was 85% contained, and there had been no reported injuries or structural damage, according to the Maui County Department of Fire and Public Safety.

The fire department said the fire was reported at 9:54 a.m. Sunday and grew quickly mauka of the highway as the flames moved upslope on the south side of Haleakala.

Evacuation orders were issued for dozens of homes in the area through the Maui County computerized system that issues alerts through the Maui Emergency Management Agency, and by emergency officials going door-to-door, for those living in the area along Piilani Highway between mile markers 24 and 25. Traffic is closed from mile markers 20 to 41.

This photo provided by the Maui Fire Department shows smoke from a fire burning in Kahikinui, Hawaii on the island of Maui on Sunday, June 15, 2025. Photo courtesy Maui Fire Department

Maui resident Harry Newman said that from his home at Kahikinui, he heard distant gunshots coming from a lower elevation near the coastline Sunday morning, perhaps someone hunting.

“Then, I saw a brush fire in the area five minutes later,” he said.

The area includes Hawaiian homesteaders like Newman living in pasturelands at Kahikinui.

Newman, whose home is at about the 3,600-foot elevation, said it’s the sixth time there’s been a brush fire in Kahikinui in the 26 years he’s lived there.

“We’ve been through this before,” Newman said.

Warren Aganos was on his family’s Hawaiian Homelands lot preparing to go on a Father’s Day hunt when a neighbor called him Sunday morning telling him a fire had broken out.

“I hung up and raced out. I didn’t let her finish,” said Aganos, who has been slowly rebuilding the three structures his family lost in a 2016 brush fire that burned over 5,000 acres in the same area. “I was thinking about the last one,” he said. “It was super emotional.”

Aganos said he rushed in his truck to make sure first responders knew where the community’s water storage tanks were before navigating Kahikinui’s dirt roads down to the highway where he could see smoke billowing over the hillside. The community lacks electrical and water infrastructure, and some of the roads are only navigable by four-wheel drive.

The fire department sent engines, tankers and a helicopter to battle the blaze. Three bulldozers cut firebreaks in the lower part of the community, Desiree Graham, co-chair of Kahikinui’s firewise committee, said.

The county said Monday that 20 to 30 state land and forest workers joined in firefighting efforts.

A brush fire sparked a number of evacuations on Sunday. No injuries or structural damages have been reported. Courtesy photo

The affected area has 104 Hawaiian homeland lots of 10 to 20 acres each. About 40 lots have homes, including 15 with full-time residents. Some lots have more than one home, Graham said.

A state agency issues lot leases under a program Congress created in 1920 to help Native Hawaiians become economically self-sufficient. Those with at least 50% Hawaiian blood quantum can apply for a 99-year lease for $1 a year.

The fire department said mapping the fire, which was estimated at 500 acres Sunday evening, had been difficult because of the mountainous terrain.

Newman, a former president of the homestead association at Kahikinui, said homesteaders have established fire safety practices including the cutting and composting of brush near their homes and the creation of firebreaks around the houses.

Homesteaders rely on bringing in their own supply of water, and firefighters have to bring in water to fight the blaze.

State and county leaders have signed emergency proclamations so that the Hawaii National Guard can help and counties can access assistance.

Keokea Community Center opened at 7 a.m. Monday as a shelter after evacuation orders were issued for residences in the area.

Audrey McAvoy, Kathy McCormack and Mark Thiessen of the Associated Press contributed to this report.