Kaneohe man electrocuted while picking avocados

A 48-year-old Kaneohe man was electrocuted yesterday morning while trying to pick avocados in a brush area near Windward Community College in Kaneohe, police said.

Police said the man was using a metal pole and hit an overhead electrical line, and was dead when emergency personnel arrived.

Police said the man was not supposed to be in that area.

Fire Capt. Terry Seelig said that when fire personnel arrived, the long metal pole was glowing at its base and was still touching the power line and the ground, but not touching the man.

Firefighters waited for Hawaiian Electric Co. workers, who turned off the power.

Dozens of firefighters finally contain large fire

Firefighters contained a brush fire yesterday afternoon that burned 250 acres of brush and grass in former sugarcane fields in Waiawa.

More than three dozen Honolulu firefighters returned yesterday morning to battle the wildfire in a remote area between Waiawa Correctional Facility and the Pearl City Industrial Park.

Capt. Terry Seelig, fire department spokesman, said the brush fire broke out around 3:40 p.m. Tuesday, and firefighters had it 75 percent contained when they ceased operations at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Firefighters, six fire engines, four water tankers and the department's helicopter, which is being used for water drops, returned to the scene yesterday.

City bulldozers cleared access for water trucks yesterday.

The fire has not threatened any private property and there have been no injuries, Seelig added.

Man in accident arrested for drugs, forgery, theft

A 32-year-old downtown Honolulu man was arrested Tuesday afternoon on suspicion of drug offenses, credit-card forgery and 15 counts of unauthorized possession of personal information.

Police said the man had gotten into a car accident and was taken to a local emergency room. When he gave his backpack to hospital security officers to check, they discovered a “;vast amount”; of drugs, credit cards and identification cards, police said.

Hospital security called police and the man was arrested.