Kauai firefighters extinguish Kapaa home fire, no injuries reported

A Kapaa house on Kahuna Road was fully engulfed by the time firefighters reached it, but no injuries were reported and crews kept the blaze from becoming a wider loss in the neighborhood.

The Kauai Fire Department said dispatchers received the call shortly after 1:20 p.m. Monday, May 25, and firefighters arrived shortly after 1:35 p.m. At the scene, they found a single-story home already burning hard. Crews first focused on cooling a propane tank before extinguishing the rest of the fire, and the scene was not cleared until shortly before 8:20 p.m., showing how long even one residential fire can tie up island resources. KFD estimated damage to the structure and contents at $321,000.

The response pulled in several parts of Kauai’s emergency network. Kapaa Fire Station, Kaiakea Fire Station and Līhue Fire Station all responded, along with Rescue 3, the on-duty battalion chief, the KFD Fire Prevention Bureau, Kauai Island Utility Cooperative and the Kauai Police Department. Fire prevention investigators took over the scene after the flames were out, and the cause remains under investigation.

The Kahuna Road fire is the latest in a series of Kapaa structure fires that have kept attention on the East Side’s residential fire risk. On March 5, firefighters extinguished another Kahuna Road structure fire that displaced two people and a pet and caused an estimated $500,000 in damage. On April 11, crews contained a Kualono Street fire to the structure of origin; damage in that case was estimated at $479,000. Taken together, the incidents show how quickly a home fire in Kapaa can become a serious property loss, even when lives are spared.

KFD says it operates eight fire stations islandwide, including Kapaa, Kaiākea and Līhue, a network that is often tested when a fire breaks out in a dense residential area with limited access. The department also conducts pre-fire planning for commercial, hotel and industrial buildings to assess construction, contents, entrances and fire-protection equipment, part of the broader readiness that comes into play when a neighborhood emergency breaks out.

That readiness was highlighted again on May 20 in Līhue, when county officials blessed three new brush trucks and a high water rescue vehicle. The three brush trucks cost more than $554,000, and the rescue vehicle cost more than $140,000, for a combined investment of nearly $695,000 in wildfire and flood response capabilities.