BARRY MARKOVITZ / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-BULLETIN An HPD Specialized Services bomb squad officer removed a suspected explosive device yesterday from a Penny Saver news rack adjacent to the Kaaawa Post Office on Kamehameha Highway. The post office and next door restaurant were evacuated for several hours.

Firecracker causes 3-hour
scare in Kaaawa

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By Nelson Daranciang and Crystal Kua
ndaranciang@starbulletin.com
ckua@starbulletin.com

Police closed the Kaaawa Post Office and a restaurant next door for about three hours yesterday as the police bomb squad recovered what was later determined to be a large, commercial firecracker.

The device, about the size of a roll of nickels, had a cigarette attached that had burned out before reaching the fuse. It was on a classified newspaper rack in a corridor between the post office and Moani's Country Kitchen, said Alika Anixt, who found the object at about 9 a.m.

"First, it was, like, it was flipped over so you couldn't see the cigarette or the fuse or anything. I pulled the Penny Saver out and it flipped it. And I was like, 'Oh, wow.' And I just told everybody," she said.

Anixt called the fire department and alerted the two workers inside the post office who called police. Anixt also alerted the people in the restaurant.

Firefighters at the nearby Kaaawa Station evacuated the Swanzy Beach Park pavilion across Kamehameha Highway where 15 children were attending the Head Start preschool.

"We left the classroom and evacuated to the end of the park near the fire station," said Dorothy Mahoney, Head Start teacher.

Mahoney said she called parents to take their children home early.

A police officer and sergeant examined the object and determined that it could be an explosive device, said Capt. Richard Soo, Honolulu Fire Department spokesman.

Police then cordoned off the building and the front and back parking lots with yellow tape. The 7-Eleven store and gas station next to the post office building remained open.

By 12:13 p.m., Honolulu Police Department bomb technicians wearing protective suits had removed the firecracker.