Fire destroys vacant house

Fire destroys vacant house

Fire destroyed a vacant home in a Puna subdivision on Friday morning.

Firefighters responded to a 10:47 a.m. call reporting the three-story home on the 16-1500 block of Road 6 in Hawaiian Acres was on fire.

“From what we gather from the neighbors, it was an unoccupied building. Upon arrival … the house was fully engulfed,” Fire Battalion Chief Jerry Lum said early Friday afternoon. “When they (firefighters) came, nobody was on the property.”

Lum said the home was a total loss, estimated at $60,000, and a fire inspector was investigating the cause. The blaze left only a concrete wall standing amid smoldering wood rubble and pieces of a former corrugated metal roof. There were two burned-out car shells next to the structure — one of which appeared to be an early 1950s model.

Neighbor Brandy Balai said her son was the first to spot the fire. He called his father and the Fire Department was notified. An ambulance was among the units responding to the scene, although no one was injured.

Balai said that a couple from the San Francisco area owned the house, but the structure was unfinished when they divorced. She said she didn’t know their names, but added that they have an adult son who had been to the property recently.