Kohala Information Update for March 14th, 2019:

The Hawaii Fire Department (HFD) along with the Hawaii Police Department (HPD) responded to a structure fire that occurred at the Kohala Village Inn and Hub located at 55-514 Hawi Road near Akoni Pule Highway in Hawi, North Kohala Wednesday evening (March 13th).

The initial call came in at 11:23 pm Wednesday evening and crews from the North Kohala, South Kohala, and Waimea Fire Stations along with Battalion 2 and volunteers from Kohala Ranch and Kanehoa responded to the scene. Upon the arrival of HFD crews, witnesses reported the restaurant of Kohala Village Hub and Inn fully engulfed in flames with multiple small explosions heard and HPD assisted with evacuating the 15 guests, who were staying at the hotel at the time of the fire.

Once on scene, HFD crews began a combination (Defensive and Offensive) attack on the fire and firefighters made interior access to the structure to prevent the fire from further spreading to the rest of the building. HFD personnel also worked to prevent the fire from spreading to a nearby business with a large volume propane tank located in close proximity to the fire, where crews worked to mitigate that hazard.

At 3:27 am Thursday morning (March 14th), HFD crews had the fire under control and began overhaul and salvaging operations to the building and its contents. Crews were on scene for a majority of the day on Thursday to put out hot spots and also begin their investigation into the cause of the fire.

HPD had shutdown Akoni Pule Hwy and Hawi Road in Hawi town for a good portion of the night and into Thursday morning as HFD crews and equipment were working at the scene.

No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire remains under investigation. Damage estimates were reported at $1 Million dollars with over $2 Million dollars saved.