Mililani farmhouse
was latest in rash of
intentionally set fires

Arsonists are among the most
difficult criminals to catch, police say

By Linda Aragon
Star-Bulletin

Magdelina and Petronilo Parilla live in a tent near the ashes of their Mililani farm home.

Police and fire investigators arrived there the night of May 24 to find the one-bedroom home destroyed and four cars parked outside torched, making the Parillas among the latest victims in what police say is a seasonal increase in arson.

"They lost everything," said fire investigator Arthur Brown.

Police crime statistics show the number of arson cases almost doubled from 16 in March to 29 in April. In the first few weeks of May, 10 arson cases were reported. Damages from those cases alone are in the millions.

Police arson Detective Steve Whiting said arson appears to increase in cycles. A growing pile of cases on Whiting's desk suggests that arson season has begun.

Only about 30 percent of arson cases are solved, Whiting said, noting arsonists are some of the toughest criminals to catch.

Arson "tends to be a crime mostly committed at night when no one is around," Whiting said, "And usually arsonists work alone.

"They tend to be loners even when they're not setting fires," he said.

Police are still looking for the people responsible for setting fire to the University of Hawaii Campus Center cafeteria and a Kailua home, where seven pedigree dogs perished.

Whiting said he has a possible suspect in the April 28 fire at UH that caused $1.5 million in damages and closed the cafeteria until fall.

Police Detective Bobby Carvalho has already searched a list of the barking dogs to have set fire to the Kailua home where dog breeders Wally and Catherine Lee lived.

So far, Carvalho said there have been no arrests in the April 20 blaze that destroyed the 1362 Akalani Place home. Estimated damage totaled $150,000 to the structure and $25,000 to the contents.

Catherine Lee's aunt and next-door neighbor, Lydia Alvaro, was in Kona with the Lees visiting family when she received an early-morning call from her daughter.

Her daughter heard a loud explosion in the middle of the night and ran outside to see the Lees' home engulfed in flames.

She ran to the home and managed to save a pregnant Rottweiler who suffered burns, a miniature Doberman pinscher, a Neapolitan mastiff and a Chinese shar-pei.

A Rottweiler pup and his mother burned along with five other dogs. The Lees now live next door with Alvaro.

Carvalho said finding arson suspects is often difficult because "You don't have a picture of the guy bent over with a match."

He said investigators must determine how a fire started as well as who would have a motive, which he said often stems from a grudge, spite or revenge.

Fire investigators said the fire that destroyed the Parillas' home may have been related to another arson in the same community a few weeks earlier.

Fire Department investigator Brown said in early May, the department responded to a fire at a farm 1 to 1-1/2 miles from the Parillas' home. Brown said a blaze that seemed to be deliberately set broke out in a container, burning farm equipment and fertilizer.

Both farms are in a secluded area off a dirt road from Meheula Parkway and Lanikuhana Avenue in Mililani. "The area is patroled by security guards. It had to be people from the inside," Brown said about both fires.

He said the fire in the Parillas' home seems to have originated in the living room, which was also used as a bedroom.

Brown said the fire did not appear to have spread from the home to the cars parked outside. "In other words there were five individual fires," Brown said.

The Red Cross provided the Parillas with kitchen utensils, clothing and the tent that has become their home.

People arrested for arson are usually charged with criminal property damage, because Hawaii does not have an arson law, Whiting said. Criminal property damage carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.