StarBulletin.com

Kauai firms OK after $3.5M fire


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POSTED: Tuesday, May 18, 2010

After suffering $3.5 million in damage from a warehouse fire, most business tenants in Puhi, Kauai, say they are up and running.

Hamco, specializing in plate glass windows for 12 years, said it is taking calls from customers and servicing existing clients.

“;Our offices are burned, but we're still operating through the same telephone number,”; said Hamco project manager Noel Patricio.

Fire officials were still investigating the cause of Thursday's fire in the light industrial area.

Patricio said Hamco owner Ernie Hamada was operating in a kind of “;virtual office”; via cell phones and e-mails as it cleans up the warehouse area and finds a temporary location.

Kauai Freight Service Inc. owner Stephen Girald, whose business has been operating for 26 years, said none of his trucks' deliveries was interrupted.

At the start of the blaze, Girald said, he called his drivers, who then hurried in to move the trucks away from the burning warehouse.

“;Everybody cooperated as a team,”; he said.

Girald said he has not determined the dollar extent of the damage, but the fire burned about 10,000 to 13,000 square feet of his warehouse space, including cabinets and building materials as well as newsprint rolls stored by the Garden Island newspaper.

The newspaper had about seven to nine days of newsprint at its printing plant, and was awaiting an emergency shipment of additional newsprint from Oahu Publications Inc.

Newspaper Publisher Randy Kozerski said the shipment was expected to arrive today.

Kozerski said readers and advertisers will not notice the effects of the fire.

Beachside Roofing LLC said the fire has not affected its workers in the field, and it is continuing to meet payroll.

While its Kauai office is looking for temporary space, Beachside Roofing's office on Oahu had a partial backup of business files that has helped it to continue service to customers, owner Robert Alton said.

Maui Kjeldsen said his business of building canoes and paddles suffered about $35,000 in damage, but luckily he has canoe molds in China ready for production.

Kjeldsen said he plans to fill the orders for the canoes and then the paddles.

“;It's going to take a little while,”; he said.

Kjeldsen said his wife recently gave birth to a second child, so he wants to spend more time with his family.

“;Right now my first priority is going to be my family,”; he said.