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About 300 customers of the Hanamaulu Post Office will need to collect their mail at the Lihue Post Office counter after a fire destroyed the Hanama‘ulu Trading Co.
U.S. Postal Service spokesman Duke Gonzales said post office boxes are being set up in Lihue for affected Hanamaulu customers, but the process will take a few weeks. "We apologize for the inconvenience that this is causing to our customers," Gonzales said.
A fire destroyed Hanama‘ulu Trading Co. on Friday afternoon. The wooden, two-story building on Kuhio Highway housed the post office, retail and office spaces, a church, a beauty salon, a beauty shop and variety stores. Damage to the building and its contents was estimated at $1.2 million. The cause of the fire remained under investigation Monday.
Gonzales said a couple of hundred of pieces of mail were salvaged from the Hanamaulu branch and will be sent to customers.
In July 2011 the Hanamaulu Post Office was one of four post offices in the state placed on a list for possible closure before a moratorium on closures was announced.