UH financial data destroyed in persistent building blaze

Honolulu firefighters spent much of Sunday battling a persistent fire at the University of Hawaii that destroyed payroll and other financial records for the entire 10-campus UH system and led to the evacuation of a nearby apartment building.

The fire at the approximately 30-year-old, portable wooden building near the Stan Sheriff Center on UH’s lower campus spewed smoke for hours, much of it wafting over the H-1 freeway.

No one was injured, but the heavy plume prompted officials to evacuate a nearby apartment building. About 70 residents were displaced.

The American Red Cross Hawaii Chapter set up a temporary shelter at Manoa Valley District Park to accommodate the evacuees. Access to the building was restored around 7:30 p.m.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, although Hono­lulu Fire Department spokes­man Capt. Robert Main said the totality of the damage probably means investigators "aren’t going to have much left to look at."

Main initially said the fire caused an estimated $500,000 to the structure and $100,000 to the computers, files and other contents.

The initial blaze was reported at 8:03 a.m., and firefighters had it under control at 8:21 a.m. — but it wasn’t fully extinguished.

"Once it got into the roof structure, we had problems getting into the roof area and opening it up," Main said.

Main said firefighters were hampered by layers of different roofing materials, the result of decades of piled-on renovations.

Around 10 a.m. firefighters opened the roof and exposed the interior to a sudden influx of air, "and it just erupted into flames," Main said.

Already aware that no one was inside the structure, the firefighters retreated from the roof and elected to fight the fire from a distance, focusing their efforts on containing it to the original structure.

"We basically just waited it out," Main said.

Fire personnel used heavy machinery to demolish most of the building and allow them to reach pockets of smoldering material.

Firefighters remained at the scene through the early evening, at which point the fire was mostly extinguished save for a few smoldering areas. A crew was scheduled to remain at the site overnight to guard against another resurgence.

Main said firefighters would return this morning to finish whatever work remained.

The 2,500- to 3,000-square-foot structure is officially called Lower Campus Building 171 and houses part of UH’s financial management office.

It contained computerized and paper records for payroll, vendor payments and student loans for the entire UH system of about 60,000 students and 7,000 to 8,000 faculty and staff, said UH spokes­man Gregg Taka­yama.

"Some of the records are backed up on an off-campus site, but most are not," Taka­yama said. "We won’t know the impact until they’re able to get back into the office and determine what kind of computer records and paper records can be salvaged. For now it’s a bit too early to say what the immediate impact is."

The fire also dislocated a UH staff of about 40 employees, Taka­yama said.

UH employee paychecks will not be affected, Taka­yama said, but other services and payments might be delayed.

"Firemen did a great job in confining the fire to just that one building because it’s very close to other wooden structures that are in that lower campus area," Taka­yama said.

Anson Acain, a 23-year-old social work senior, went to the nearby UH fitness center at the bottom of the Stan Sheriff Center before 10 a.m. and could see and smell smoke.

About 25 to 30 students were working out in the fitness center when fire alarms and strobe lights suddenly went off around 12:30 p.m., when fire officials made an announcement to evacuate.

"The wind definitely could have been a factor," Acain said. "There was definitely a lot of dark smoke. It was pretty bad."

Acain has most of his UH pay stubs and also receives financial aid from UH.

"I’m not sure how it’s going to affect me," he said.