Tourist submarine catches fire

Firefighters put out what appeared to be an electrical fire yesterday aboard the Atlantis submarine at Pier 40 in Honolulu Harbor.

The fire was reported at about 6 a.m. during a shift change when maintenance crew members saw smoke coming from the submarine, according to Jon Chapman, director of maintenance for Atlantis.

When firefighters arrived at the pier, near Nimitz Highway and Waiakamilo Road, they shut down the battery-powered submarine. Chapman suspects that the fire was electrical and began in the pilot console near the front of the 100-foot submarine.

Eventually, firefighters used an on-board halon-gas fire extinguishing system to help put out the fire at about 7 a.m., according to Fire Capt. Earle Kealoha. The fire was reported extinguished at 7:57 a.m.

The cause of the fire was under investigation. A damage estimate was not immediately available.

The submarine is the largest tourist submarine in Hawaii, seating 64 people, according to Chapman.

Brush fires burn near Waiawa

Two brush fires near Waiawa started at about 3:35 p.m. yesterday.

One fire, located about 1.5 miles from the H-2 freeway in Waiawa, produced lots of smoke and was visible from the freeway. Firefighters extinguished that blaze, which burned about two acres, Capt. Terry Seelig said.

Firefighters were expected to check this morning on a second fire that continued to burn last night in the upper Waiawa Ridge area. Seelig said the fire was slow-moving and in an inaccessible area.

The two fires were separated by a distance of about five miles, Seelig said. They did not cause any road closures or structure damage.