H-3 lanes closed for an hour by truck blaze

A truck fire closed the Kaneohe-bound lanes of H-3 freeway for about an hour Wednesday morning.

The fire happened about 8:30 a.m. on the Halawa side of the freeway, about a quarter-mile before the entrance to the Harano Tunnels. Firefighters reached the scene at 8:51 a.m. and found a truck engulfed in flames, fire Capt. Terry Seelig said. The fire had started in the engine, he said.

Firefighters put out the fire in seven minutes. No one was injured, Seelig said. Damage to the truck was estimated at $6,000.

Taxi driver suffers heart attack, crashes

A 69-year-old taxi driver was in critical condition after he apparently suffered a heart attack and lost control of his car early Wednesday morning in the Makiki area, police said.

The incident happened at about 2 a.m. as the man was driving north on Piikoi Street near Mott-Smith Drive. His 2000 Lincoln Town Car hit a curb, uprooted a sign, and hit a light pole and a wall before crashing into a vehicle parked on Piikoi Street. Paramedics took him to Straub Medical Center in critical condition.

A 20-year-old female passenger in the cab was not injured.

Kauai cemetery will be enlarged by 2,000 graves

The Kauai Planning Commission has approved a plan to nearly double the capacity of the Kauai Veterans Cemetery in Hanapepe.

The 5-acre cemetery currently has room for 2,500 grave sites.

It averages one to two burials per week.

Neal Mitsuyoshi, chief engineering officer at the state Department of Defense, told the Garden Island newspaper that the cemetery will reach capacity in about 10 years if left alone.

Permits approved by the commission Tuesday will allow the cemetery to add six more acres and grow to 4,500 grave sites.

Gene Young, planner at Belt Collins, the company hired to develop the project, said the changes will ensure the cemetery has sufficient space for the next 50 years.

Mitsuyoshi said the federal government will fund the expansion.

Kaehu Bay site being bought by Maui County

Maui County is taking ownership of one of the last undeveloped shoreline parcels of a once-famous and vast network of wetlands and fishponds between the mouths of Waiehu and Iao streams.

The Trust for Public Land said last week that a public-private partnership enabled the purchase of 64 acres at Kaehu Bay for nearly $1 million.

The property is home to Hawaiian cultural sites including agricultural terraces, shrines and burials.

The trust said the coastal wetlands are potential future habitat for endangered Hawaiian water birds.

Last year the Maui County Council authorized paying up to $1.7 million for the land. But the trust advised the county to delay after the property was foreclosed on.