Pahoa’s Malama Market closing as lava nears

PAHOA, Hawaii » With the possibility of lava reaching a shopping center and gas station shortly before Christmas Day, Malama Market is planning to close.

The store, in the Pahoa Marketplace, will begin removing equipment and initiate various shutdown procedures on Tuesday. It will be shuttered after it closes Thursday evening, its parent company announced.

"Our employees are our top priorities and right now we’re looking into various options on how to help them through the transition," said Sheryl Toda, senior director of marketing and corporate communications for the Sullivan Family of Companies. Malama Market is owned by the Kalama Beach Corp., one of several Sullivan retail entities.

Pahoa’s Malama Market opened in 2005 and has 83 employees.

Hawaii County Civil Defense Director Darryl Oliveira said that while no evacuation has been ordered, many businesses are preparing on their own for the lava’s arrival. On Monday, the lava was about a mile from the shopping center, which also contains a hardware store and pharmacy.

There is also a gas station in the area that will require a three-day window to sell off the remaining fuel from its pump before implementing protective measures in order to keep the area from igniting, Oliveira said.

The molten flow from Kilauea Volcano, which started on June 27, has been threatening Pahoa town, population about 900, for months.

In October, it stalled just before hitting Pahoa’s main road. It later started flowing from a different spot.

Based on the lava’s current advancement rate, it is within seven to 10 days of reaching the shopping area.

Duchess Kama, manager of Supercuts in the Pahoa Marketplace, said it’s still too early to tell when and where the lava will make its way downslope as it moves toward the shopping area.

"It just seems to move fast, then slow down, move fast, then slow down again," Kama said. "We’re more anxious because it’s getting closer, and it’s the unknown part — that’s what makes you anxious."

Noting that talk about lava is now part of daily conversation, Kama added, "Everybody is a little stressed out, but we’re a community that sticks together."

According to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, in addition to the lava flow’s active lobe, a breakout from the lava tube was "weakly active" on Monday.

The next community update meeting will be with representatives from Hawaii County Civil Defense and the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Pahoa High School’s cafeteria.

Since the lava has entered the Puna District, it has smothered parts of a cemetery and burned down a house, a garden shed and open-air cattle shelter. It also made its way across a road, through the gate of the Pahoa Recycling and Transfer Station and burned tires, metal materials and vegetation in its path.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.