Newswatch
HILO - A criminal detective is working with fire investigators today to determine the cause of an apartment fire that left 20 families homeless last night, police said. Hilo fire leaves
20 families homelessThree people were injured by the fire that raced through the top floor of a three-story apartment house at Waiakea Villas.
Officials said none of the injuries were serious.
The wooden building was destroyed by the blaze.
Police Capt. Charles Chai said 20 of the building's 42 units were occupied.
Fire Department spokesman Lloyd Narimatsu said flames were coming from the roof when firefighters arrived shortly after the 7:23 p.m. alarm.
"It spread rapidly, especially through the attic," he said.
Firefighters had the blaze under control by about 10 p.m.
Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate trustees Gerard Jervis and Oswald Stender are chastising fellow trustee Lokelani Lindsey for a report she compiled criticizing school President Michael Chun. Trustees rap Lindsey
for criticizing Chun’s workIn the latest clash in the estate's boardroom, Jervis and Stender called Lindsey's action "a very sad and misguided effort" to deflect blame from herself.
"After all, she was the lead trustee for education for four years, and now she is essentially saying that the educational performance of the Kamehameha Schools is someone else's fault," the two trustees said in a prepared statement.
But Lindsey said she is only fulfilling her fiduciary duties as a trustee by pointing out management deficiencies and financial irregularities by the school's popular headmaster.
During Chun's tenure test scores for students have declined steadily during the past several years, according to Lindsey.
Hawaii gets sneak peek at
Warner Brothers will give Hawaii a very early peek at its unreleased movie about American running legend Steve Prefontaine next weekend as some of track's biggest stars arrive in town.
movie on track legend next weekA Friday night preview of "Without Limits," co-written by Lanikai's Kenny Moore, will be shown at Consolidated's Cinerama Theater on the eve of the world class Waikiki Mile races.
The movie company has signed on with Nike and the Honolulu Marathon Association as a co-sponsor of the races, which feature Olympic and collegiate champions, as well as world and national record holders in the men's and women's fields. Competition will begin at 3:45 p.m. on Kalakaua Avenue.
Moore, co-writer and executive producer of the film, convinced his studio to set up the special showing for Honolulu. It is not due for worldwide release until March 1998.
Several mainland and local sports celebrities who knew and competed with Prefontaine are expected to attend.
"Without Limits" deals with the meteoric rise and premature end of a track superstar who's been popularly dubbed, "the James Dean of running." An outspoken, brash, charismatic and ferociously competitive world-beater, Prefontaine once held every U.S. track record from 2,000 to 10,000 meters.
He died in 1975 at age 24 under the weight of his overturned convertible on a road in Eugene, Oregon.
Moore said most of the 636 tickets for the showing will be distributed free on demand to people who visit the Honolulu Marathon Association's expo at the Outrigger Reef Hotel next week.
The movie is produced by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner. It stars Billy Crudup ("Sleepers, "Inventing the Abbotts") as Prefontaine and Donald Sutherland as his University of Oregon coach, Bill Bowerman.
Two boys admit setting one of four Waianae fires
Two boys have admitted to setting one of the fires that burned along the Waianae coast earlier this week, police said.Neighbors reported seeing the boys, ages 10 and 12, playing with lighters near a junk pile on Mailiili Road on Wednesday, police said.
When the boys were located and questioned, they admitted to setting a paper cup stuffed with dry grass on fire, police said.
They told police they tried to put out the fire, but the flames just got bigger and out of control, police said.
The boys then reportedly alerted neighbors of the blaze.
The fire, which involved three large stacks of shredded rubber, sent thick, black noxious fumes into the air.
Residents were evacuated from their homes because of the potentially hazardous fumes.
Housing Department branch taken over
The city Department of Housing and Community Development has been stripped of day-to-day control of its troubled property management branch.City spokeswoman Carol Costa yesterday confirmed that Chase Masuda, an internal control analyst with the Finance Department, is now handling the duties in the property management branch.
Two workers from the branch were among 14 people who have been arrested in an alleged bribery, forgery and theft operation involving the city's Ewa Villages Revitalization Project.
"He is over there at the direction of (Finance Director) Roy Amemiya to coordinate all the purchasing duties for that division and also for overseeing all disbursement of funds," Costa said.