LIHU‘E — A Puhi warehouse fire is still smoking over eight hours after it was reported at 4:44 a.m. today.
Kaua‘i Fire Department firefighters from five stations, the Lihu‘e headquarters and, for a period of time, firefighters from the Lihu‘e Airport Crash Fire station, have been fighting the blaze in the 13,000-square-foot warehouse.
Tenants include Kaua‘i Freight Service, Hamco, Beachside Roofing and a surfboard- and boat-repair business.
Although the fire was reported contained at 7 a.m., states a county press release, billows of smoke continued to pour from the building this afternoon.
No one was injured and the cause of the fire is under investigation, the release states.
Onlookers reported the corrugated roof of the building appeared to have melted from the heat of the fire inside.
An excavator operator with Kaua‘i Freight assisted firefighters by removing corrugated metal from the warehouse roof to allow firefighters better access to the fire.
Some 28 firefighters from the Lihu‘e, Kalaheo, Hanapepe, Koloa and Kapa‘a stations responded.
Preliminary estimates place damage to the structure and its contents at over $1 million.
Puhi Road remained closed from early this morning, and interested spectators lined both sides of the Grove Farm park earlier this morning.
Among the contents of the warehouse are appliances Kaua‘i Freight Service stores for delivery for Sears, and about a three-month supply of newsprint used to print The Garden Island newspaper.
With just a 10-day supply of newsprint at the Kuhio Highway offices, The Garden Island reached out to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, whose leaders offered a surplus container of newsprint so the Kaua‘i daily newspaper could continue production uninterrupted.
“We are very relieved to hear no one was injured in the warehouse fire in Puhi,” said Randy Kozerski, The Garden Island publisher and editor.
“We will continue to provide the same excellent level of service to our readers and advertisers,” and will continue to publish daily despite the newsprint loss, he said.
