Raising Cane
By Rob Perez
Sunday, June 10, 2001
No matter when it happens, a major fire in a high-rise building is bad news. Tenants still scarred
after high-rise fireEven if no one is hurt, the incident takes a heavy toll on those in the building, on those who respond to the fire and on those responsible for getting the structure back in shape.
When the 16th floor -- the top one -- of the Interstate Building caught fire in April 2000, it started a chain of events from which businesses are still recovering.
Some of the tenants who were displaced by the worst high-rise fire in Hawaii's history have since returned to their offices but are still trying to recapture business lost in the aftermath.
The fire couldn't have come at a worse time for some.
For much of the past decade, Hawaii's sluggish economy has not been kind to many businesses, and "a disaster like this didn't help," said Colin Leong, owner of Commercial Graphics and Associates, which has a 15th-floor office in the building.
After the fire, Leong ran his business from his home for a year while the building's top floors were being renovated. The 16th floor was gutted in the fire, and several below it were heavily damaged by water used to fight the blaze.
Leong lost thousands of dollars worth of electrical equipment -- computers, copiers, telephones, a fax machine -- and didn't have insurance to cover those losses. His company took the financial hit.
"It's been a burden, but we're plugging along," Leong said.
So is Douglas Teraoka, who runs a chiropractic business with Dennis Momyer on the 15th floor. The two chiropractors had to relocate their practice for about 11 months. They moved back in March.
Because of the disruption caused by the fire, Teraoka figures the office lost more than a third of its patients, though business has picked up since.
"It's just starting to maybe approach normal," Teraoka said.
Fire investigators have yet to determine the cause of the April Fool's Day fire, which caused more than $12 million in damage. They have ruled out arson, smoking and spontaneous combustion.
The blaze apparently started under a desk near a coffee maker in a 16th-floor office.
Calvin Oki, the building manager, said the 16th floor is the only one that hasn't reopened, and the renovation of that floor is scheduled to be completed at the end of this month.
Though the timing of the fire was bad for businesses like Leong's, it was even worse for Crum & Forster.
The national insurer took over the insurance policy for the building at 12:01 a.m. on the day of the fire. Eight hours after the policy took effect, disaster struck.
A Crum & Forster spokeswoman declined comment. Probably the only company that wasn't hurt by the timing of the fire: First Insurance Co. It insured the building from April 1998 until Crum & Forster's policy kicked in.
Star-Bulletin columnist Rob Perez writes on issues
and events affecting Hawaii. Fax 529-4750, or write to
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu 96813. He can also be reached
by e-mail at: rperez@starbulletin.com.
