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By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
After the fire Saturday at the Interstate Building, firefighters begin
their investigation and cleanup on the 16th floor. Eleven firefighters
required treatment at hospitals.

Water does much
damage in Interstate
Building fire

Saturday's blaze causes an
estimated $1 million worth
of damage

By Leila Fujimori
Star-Bulletin

Although fire destroyed the top floor of the Interstate Building on Saturday, water caused much of the damage affecting about 130 businesses in the building, including the Honolulu Fire Department Federal Credit Union.

As owners and workers of the businesses cleaned up and assessed the damage yesterday, rain flowed through the roof's burned-out storm drain pipes into the building, making things worse. Water also seeped through ceiling tiles. The worst high-rise fire the Honolulu Fire Department has ever battled caused an estimated $1 million-plus in damage to the structure and several millions' more to contents, said HFD spokesman Capt. Richard Soo.

By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Workers from Oahu Plumbing arrived to shut off flowing water.

Fire Capt. Jeff Young remained in guarded condition in intensive care at Queen's Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation. However, Capt. Guy Katayama was released from Straub Hospital yesterday after being admitted for smoke inhalation. Nine other firefighters also were treated at hospitals.

Investigators yesterday poked through remains of the Lee Sands Hawaii and Honolulu Puka Shell Exchange office in Room 1650, where the fire is believed to have originated.

Federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents and Honolulu police criminal investigators were at the scene yesterday trying to determine the cause of the blaze. Soo said there is no indication yet that the fire was deliberately set.

Some occupants yesterday wondered what took firefighters so long to get to the top floor. It took them 3 hours to get the fire under control from the time alarms sounded at 8:13 a.m., and 9 hours to extinguish the fire.

Soo said locked stairwell doors stalled entry, requiring firefighters to break locks.

In newer buildings the doors would not have been locked. The Interstate Building, however, was not required to meet current city building code requirements since it met the standards at the time it was built. Other problems might have been avoided if more stringent requirements were followed, Soo said.

"Superheated gases disabled the elevators," he said. "You don't want smoke penetrating through the elevator shaft. It's like one big chimney."

New buildings are required to have a separate elevator lobby automatically sealed off from the common corridor of each floor in case of fire.

Smoke control systems are also required in newer buildings. One such system pushes breathable air in and sucks smoke out, which may have prevented firefighters from suffering smoke inhalation.

Soo said the Fire Department would like all buildings retrofitted with sprinkler systems. Condominium owner Derrick Ishihara favors the measure, but said: "It's not clear what caused the fire. I'm not sure sprinklers would have stopped it."

After a fire struck the same building two years ago, the association of owners looked into adding a sprinkler system, said building manager Calvin Oki. But faced with a $1 million price tag, "They felt it was too expensive at that time," he said.

Elevators in the main building were not working yesterday and may not be repaired for up to two weeks, he said.

Oki said yesterday he will meet with business owners today to assess damages.

Overhead lighting, most telephone lines and air conditioning remained out yesterday. Floors 8 through 16 had no running water because pumps were shut down. But Oki had the roof's drainage pipes plugged up, and cleanup crews pumped water from the building yesterday. The basement had been deluged with over a foot of water, where First Hawaiian Bank has offices.

Most owners dealt with the water and mess themselves or with the help of family, friends and workers.

Accountant Robert Lai Jr. saw water raining down on his desk from a seam in the ceiling in his 12th-floor office. With tax returns due in two weeks, Lai remained undaunted. "By hook or by crook, I'm going to get it (the tax returns) done," he said.

There was no school today for 125 students at the Travel Institute of the Pacific, with two office suites and six classrooms on the 11th floor. President James E. Hughes said he estimates $20,000 in water damage to computers and furniture, but the computer lab with 40 computers was spared.