LIHU‘E — Maui Kjeldsen was on duty at the Kaua‘i Fire Department’s Koloa station when the call came in about a warehouse fire Thursday in Puhi. “Which warehouse?” Kjeldsen recalled wondering to himself. His Kia Kaha Canoes & Paddles business
LIHU‘E — Maui Kjeldsen was on duty at the Kaua‘i Fire Department’s Koloa station when the call came in about a warehouse fire Thursday in Puhi.
“Which warehouse?” Kjeldsen recalled wondering to himself. His Kia Kaha Canoes & Paddles business is located in a warehouse near the Kaua‘i Freight Service building.
Battalion Chief Shawn Hosaka confirmed Kjeldsen’s fears. His shop had gone up in smoke, contents and all, in a fire that took most of the day to extinguish.
“They lost everything,” said Cara Mazzei, who wrote a press release about the losses Maui and Jody Kjeldsen sustained in the fire.
Without insurance to cover losses of contents — he has only liability insurance on the shop — Maui Kjeldsen figures he lost about $35,000 worth of inventory in the blaze, the toughest things to replace being molds for canoes and paddles.
It will take a lot of time and effort to build new molds, he said.
Maui Kjeldsen said Monday that he was starting to wind down operations at the warehouse in anticipation of the arrival of their second child in a couple weeks, otherwise there would have been more inventory in the shop and hence lost in the blaze.
Still, someone was supposed to have picked up an order of paddles that day, and those were lost in the fire, he said.
Also destroyed was a three-person, koa canoe he was storing for a friend with intent to restore it later, he said.
Fortunately, Kjeldsen had been working on establishing a production facility in China, with the intent to spend more time with his family and on development affairs and less time with production matters, he said.
“I’m always looking for ways to spend more time with my family,” he said.
His wife, the former Jody Kono, is a Kaua‘i native and executive director of the Po‘ipu Beach Resort Association.
“I was two weeks away from taking some time off with the new baby’s arrival and was working hard to complete my outstanding paddle orders. This fire has changed everything,” he said in Mazzei’s release. “The important thing is that no one was hurt.”
Kia Kaha Canoes & Paddles was one of the three businesses completely wiped out in last week’s fire that destroyed a 13,000-square-foot warehouse in Puhi, causing an estimated $3.5 million in damages.
Securing a new warehouse location will take a back burner to fatherhood duties, Kjeldsen said.
He also apologized to customers who have been waiting for paddles. “Obviously these are circumstances beyond our control. I will work hard to get the paddles back into production hopefully before the end of the paddling season,” he said.
Customers can visit www.kiakahacanoesandpaddles.com for status on paddle production.
Kjeldsen had just returned from China, where he delivered his Wainui and new Hiko OC-1 canoe molds for production, so they were not destroyed in the fire.
So production of both the Wainui and the Hiko OC-1 canoes will not be interrupted and Kia Kaha is currently accepting orders. To place an order or for more information, e-mail info@kiakahacanoesandpaddles.com.
The Kjeldsens thanked family, friends and the community for all their support and all the firefighters who tackled the blaze, according to the release.
•Paul C. Curtis, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com.
