Watch your step: Shipping pallet bonfires are leaving behind a mess on beaches
MOKULEIA,OAHU (HawaiiNewsNow) - 808 Cleanups is on a crusade to put out illegal bonfires in which beachgoers use shipping pallets to fuel the flames.
808 Cleanups co-founder Michael Loftin said the leftover pallet bonfires leave behind nails, staples, hot ash and broken glass.
Over three years, 808 Cleanups has picked up 2,000 pounds of nails at Irma's.
The group is now focused on Mokuleia Beach, where as many as eight leftover bonfires have been discovered.
It's a hidden danger to adults, children and pets.
"I stepped on something. I don't know what it was, but pretty sharp. I had blood," said Mokuleia fisherman Kelvin Pascual.
Others have been injured too.
"We have people come up to us, unfortunately, saying that their child or their pet was running across and got a nail or staple in their foot," said Fawn Liebengood, of 808 Cleanups.
808 Cleanups says the bonfires are also destroying naupaka, which is home to endangered Hawaiian yellow faced bees along the Kaiwi coastline.
"We want people to have fun, but we want them to do it in a way that we can't tell they were there the next day," said Loftin.
808 Cleanups will be at Mokuleia Army Beach Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. to clean up the old pallet bonfires. The public is welcome.
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