LIHUE A fire destroyed a vacant building at the old Kekaha Sugar Mill Sunday night.
LIHUE — A fire destroyed a vacant building at the old Kekaha Sugar Mill Sunday night.
No injuries were reported, but the fire caused roughly $50,000 in damage, according to a county press release on Monday.
The fire was reported about 8 p.m. and was contained within a half hour by firefighters who responded to the blaze on Kekaha Road.
A resident, Marie Acosta, said she learned about the fire when someone drove through her neighborhood honking a car horn and yelling, “Fire!”
Acosta said the fire lasted for over an hour and its flames were “high enough to be seen from the other side of the building along the residential homes,” that border the old mill.
Firefighters also moved a collapsed metal roof in order to address multiple fires hidden underneath and successfully prevented flames from spreading to other buildings or brush areas nearby.
Police closed a portion of Kekaha Road for about three hours.
The fire was extinguished about 9 p.m. and the scene was cleared by 11:30 p.m.
An investigation into the cause of the blaze continues. Anyone with information is urged to call Police Dispatch at 241-1711. Those wishing to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers Kaua‘i, at 246-8300.
There is nothing in the area. Just rubbish all around the area. No houses nearby that could have been in any danger. The fire would have subsided just by running out of things to burn.
The fire could have started from a smaller fire. Obviously someone was playing with fire that night. It got out of hand and the blaze got worse, so he ran away. This looks like a prank. Arson. Someone just wanted to see if the fire would burn all the paper work or materials that the person wanted to destroy.