Foul play suspected in Puunene fire

Maui police suspect foul play in the $3 million fire at the Hawaiian Cement plant in Puunene.

Police Lt. Tim Gapero said a front-end loader struck a small power plant building, causing a short circuit, electrical explosion and fire about 4 a.m. Sunday.

“;The entire event is suspicious in nature,”; Gapero said.

Officials with the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, in charge of overseeing quarries and mines, joined the investigation earlier this week.

The fire destroyed a motor control center supplying power to the rock-crushing system, halting the operation of the quarry, said Mike Coad, vice president of Hawaiian Cement.

  Poulin in court

 

The Big Island man charged with murdering and raping his girlfriend's five year old daughter had his initial appearance in court today.

[ Watch ]

 

Murder suspect has court date

A Big Island man charged in the alleged sex assault and drowning of a 5-year-old girl is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow in South Hilo District Court.

Anthony S. Poulin, 30, was being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

Poulin is charged with second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree sexual assault, and one count of abuse of a family/ household member in the sexual assault and death of Javienna Win.

Poulin was supposed to watch Win, the daughter of his girlfriend, while she worked, police said.

He was seen grabbing the girl's hair and slamming her against a cement wall near a street corner in Hilo about an hour before he drowned her in a bathtub at Hilo Val-Hala apartments Sunday, police said.

Snorkeler in trouble rescued off Maui

A 35-year-old man was rescued after getting into trouble on a snorkeling trip to Molokini island off south Maui, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

A Coast Guard auxiliary unit got a call about 8 a.m. yesterday from the dive boat Ocean Odyssey about a snorkeler in trouble. The man was pulled onto the boat and revived by a doctor and a registered nurse aboard the vessel, a Coast Guard spokesman said.

A four-person Coast Guard auxiliary team brought the man to shore in Kihei and handed him off to paramedics, who took him to the hospital, the spokesman said.

His condition was not available.

3 are badly injured in Kauai car crash

Kauai police reported two people were critically injured and one seriously injured yesterday afternoon in a three-car crash on Kaumualii Highway near the so-called tree tunnel.

The crash occurred about 4:42 p.m.

All the injured were taken to Wilcox Memorial Hospital. The two critically injured patients, both 23-year-old males from Kalaheo, were airlifted to the Queen's Medical Center, Kauai County said in a news release.

Police diverted eastbound traffic to Omao Road and westbound traffic was diverted to Maluhia Road.