Kitchen at Kalaupapa destroyed by morning fire

An early morning fire destroyed the kitchen that serves patients and staff at Kalaupapa, Molokai, today but no one was hurt.

“There were no injuries,” said Ken Seamon, administrator of Kalaupapa. “There was a fire. It did destroy what we refer to as our kitchen or cafeteria. But all functions here are continuing and the patients will be taken care of.”

Janice Okubo, spokeswoman for the Department of Health, said the fire broke out between 2:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., when no one was in the building. Rangers from the Kalaupapa National Historical Park put out the fire with help from Health Department staff.

“The building with the kitchen we believe is a complete loss,” Okubo said. “We don’t have any estimates on the cost at this point.”

There are currently seven patients at Kalaupapa, but the number fluctuates because they travel back and forth to Oahu, she said. The Health Department administers the remote settlement where people with Hansen’s Disease were once sent.

Okubo said a kitchen in the care home facility on Kalaupapa will be used temporarily to provide meals for patients. It is not yet clear how meals will be provided for the 44 Health Department employees and roughly 40 federal workers at the remote peninsula at the base of steep cliffs, she said.