PAHOA — A home is burning after coming into contact with the June 27 lava flow. ADVERTISING PAHOA — A home is burning after coming into contact with the June 27 lava flow. Darryl Oliveira, Hawaii County Civil Defense administrator,
PAHOA — A home is burning after coming into contact with the June 27 lava flow.
Darryl Oliveira, Hawaii County Civil Defense administrator, said he received confirmation at about 11:55 a.m. that the home off Cemetery Road had ignited after lava reached the vacant 1,152-square-foot residence.
Oliveira said the house sits on wooden piers and that lava creeped underneath it before igniting the structure.
He said it could take 30 to 45 minutes from ignition to become fully engulfed and collapse.
Oliveira said no attempts would be made to save the home.
“We’ve been very open and clear that once the lava touches a home there is not to be any type of fire fighting activity because that wouldn’t be effective and it would put fire fighting personnel at risk,” he said.
The home was the first residential structure to come into contact with the lava flow that emerged June 27 from Pu‘u ‘O‘o on Kilauea’s East Rift Zone.
It’s also the first set ablaze by the ongoing 31-year Pu‘u ‘O‘o-Kupaianaha eruption since lava destroyed the home of Jack Thompson in Royal Gardens in March 2012.
According to county property records, the home is located at 15-1901 Cemetery Road and sits on a 45-acre agriculture lot already partially covered by lava when the flow made its initial pass through the area late last month.
The property’s most recent tenant, John Byrd, told the Tribune-Herald last month that he had relocated his family and livestock to Kalapana in anticipation of the lava’s arrival. Byrd couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
The county assessed the property’s building value at $97,800. The property includes a detached garage in addition to the home, finished in 1993, according to records. Lava was about 2 feet from the garage this morning, Oliveira said.
A small storage shed was also destroyed on the property this morning, he said.
The property, owned by the Pelfrey Trust of Fairview, Ore., surrounds the Pahoa cemetery, inundated by lava on Oct. 26.
Oliveira said a family member of the owners was en route from South Kohala to the property.
A phone call to the trust wasn’t immediately returned.
The eruption has destroyed about 216 structures since 1983. That includes a shed destroyed in Pahoa on Oct. 28.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
Staff Writer Colin M. Stewart contributed to this report.
