Hawaii wildfire destroys parts of rainforest home to fragile species

Water-carrying helicopters were used to try and douse the flames (Dan Dennison/Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources/AP)

A wildfire burning in a remote rainforest in Hawaii is underscoring a new reality for the normally lush island state just a few months after a devastating blaze on a neighbouring island levelled an entire town and killed at least 99 people.

No-one was injured and no homes were damaged in the latest fire, which scorched mountain ridges on Oahu, but the flames wiped out irreplaceable native forestland that is home to nearly two dozen fragile species.