Puna Information Update for January 20th, 2020

Fire damages a residence in the Fern Acres subdivision Monday evening (January 20th).

The Hawaii Fire Department (HFD) along with the Hawaii Police Department (HPD) responded to a report of a residential structure fire in the Fern Acres subdivision Monday evening (January 20th).

The initial call came in at 5:02 pm Monday evening and HFD crews from the Kea'au, Pahoa, Volcano, and Haihai Fire Stations along with Battalion 1, volunteers from the Fern Acres station, and HPD officers from the Puna Patrol responded to the scene located at the 11-2900 Block of Pikake Street in the Fern Acres subdivision in Puna.

Upon the arrival of emergency crews, neighbors reported a residence, described to be a single-story family dwelling and also vacant at the time of the fire, was reported to be fully engulfed in flames.

Once emergency crews arrived on the scene, HFD crews found the residence fully engulfed in flames and immediately went into a defensive mode of fire attack to gain control of the fire. HFD crews encountered a few challenges while working to extinguish the fire:

• A downed electric line created an obstacle in which HFD crews were not able to immediately access the residence for a short period until Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) personnel could mitigate/disconnect.

• Due to the limited water supply in the subdivision, HFD crews utilized engines and tanker to shuttle water to and from a water supply source located outside of the subdivision.

At last check, HFD crews were still on scene working to completing wet down and mop-up operations. Fire inspectors from HFD's Prevention Bureau were on scene conducting an investigation into the cause of the fire.