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A puppy was killed and nine residents were displaced after a fire tore through a small Nuuanu apartment building Wednesday morning.
Fire Capt. Scot Seguirant said the fire originated on and was confined to the upper floor of a two-story apartment building at 23 Iliahi St., near the Hongwanji Mission School. Three people and a dog escaped the building uninjured.
The fire was reported at 10:25 a.m. and 43 firefighters responded. The five-unit building’s two second-floor apartments received extensive fire damage and the three downstairs units received heavy water damage. The fire was brought under control at 10:47 a.m. and extinguished at 11:01 a.m.
A mother and child in a downstairs unit smelled smoke and escaped on their own. Neighbors alerted another woman living in another downstairs apartment, and she also escaped. No one else was home at the time of the fire.
Firefighters searching for occupants discovered the puppy in an upstairs unit. At least one dog also living upstairs escaped the fire, Seguirant said.
Damage was confined to the building where the fire originated.
Seguirant said the blaze caused an estimated $300,000 in damage to the structure and $60,000 to its contents.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Red Cross is assisting the nine displaced residents.
Man is arrested in attack on ex-girlfriend
Police arrested a 21-year-old man after he allegedly barged into his ex-girlfriend’s home in Wahiawa and repeatedly punched her in the face.
The victim, 32, reported to police that the man violated a temporary restraining order when he showed up at her residence at about 6:15 p.m. Saturday. Police said the suspect also ransacked contents inside the home before he punched her three times in the face. The woman sustained “substantial bodily injuries.”
Police arrested the man Tuesday on suspicion of second- degree assault, first-degree burglary, third-degree criminal property damage and violation of a protective order.
Inmate missing 9 months is back in custody
State deputy sheriffs arrested Wednesday a Women’s Community Correctional Center inmate who had been missing for nine months after she failed to return from a furlough pass.
Kawailani Awana, who is serving time for second-degree methamphetamine trafficking, was arrested at about 10:30 a.m. in Kalihi. She had failed to return to the facility on May 4.
She is expected to be charged with second-degree escape.
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