Fire restarts twice after
destroying Hilo homeAn unidentified car burned in
the garage, starting the house fire
HILO >> A house destroyed after a car caught fire in a basement garage near downtown Hilo on Wednesday burst into flames twice more yesterday, the Hawaii County Fire Department said.
The home belonging to Helen Roman was considered a total loss from the 10:30 a.m. fire Wednesday.
Despite the fire being considered out, at 3:45 a.m. yesterday, the remains of the home flared up in a new fire, said Fire Department spokesman Lloyd Narimatsu.
"They poured thousands of gallons of water on it," he said.
But 10 minutes after returning to the station at 7:20 a.m., a new call came in that the fire had flared a third time, Narimatsu said.
Fire officials considered both events yesterday to be "rekindles," Narimatsu said, meaning foul play was probably not involved.
But officials still are not sure about the original fire, which appeared to start when a car of unknown ownership parked in the garage burst into flames.
Roman, who was not home during the fire, did not own the car. Its license plate and vehicle identification number tag were destroyed, said Lt. Steven Guillermo. Police are checking other numbers on the car, he said.
The car was similar to one used in a getaway by a group of men trying to break into another car in downtown Hilo shortly before the fire, police said. But police still are not sure whether the fire and the attempted car break-in are related, Guillermo said.
How the fire started is not clear. Fire inspectors are making no comments, Narimatsu said.
