Fire damages
school classroom

Lokelani Intermediate on
Maui is left two rooms short
following a blaze on Sunday

KIHEI, Maui » Maui police are investigating a fire that caused an estimated $21,000 in damage to a classroom at Lokelani Intermediate School in Kihei.

School Principal Donna Whitford said a security guard has been assigned to patrol the campus at night and began work yesterday.

She said the room, which suffered some smoke and heat damage, needs to be examined for any potential electrical problems.

Whitford said officials hope to be able to use the classroom in about a week.

The fire started in a row of plastic lockers on the first floor outside school Building G, then spread upward into ventilation openings into a side of a classroom, Fire Battalion Chief Alan Pascua said.

The fire, under control 11 minutes after being reported at 3:49 p.m. Sunday, was mainly confined to the outside of the building, Pascua said. But the heat was so intense that it bent the blades of a couple of ceiling fans inside the room.

Whitford said a teacher was working in a nearby classroom and alerted authorities about the fire.

Whitford said the school was already short a classroom, and the fire has left the school two classrooms short.

She said there was a fire in a trash container in a girls bathroom two to three days after the Christmas break.

Whitford said there were some students who felt hurt emotionally by the fire. "You just feel violated that someone had to do this," she said.