KAILUA-KONA — A $5,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for setting brush fires in recent weeks across West Hawaii.
The Daniel R. Sayre Memorial Foundation, in support of the Hawaii Fire Department, announced the reward Tuesday. Since mid-February, there have been about a dozen suspicious fires throughout West Hawaii that each have consumed anywhere from a few square yards to hundreds of acres. The most recent occurred Sunday on roughly 30 acres near Hookena.
“We want to stop whoever is doing this — it’s not a good thing,” said foundation executive director Laura Mallery-Sayre.
Fire Chief Darren Rosario said Tuesday he hopes the reward will incentivize someone to come forward with information that could help police put behind bars the person or people responsible for setting the fires that not only destroy property but put the public and lives of first responders in danger. Investigation determined some of the blazes started near homeless camps and cooking sites; however, others continue to be investigated as arson.
“With the Sayre Foundation reward, we hope to see if someone out there has information, and maybe a reward might allow them to come forward with information that police can use,” Rosario said.
Tuesday’s reward offering is not the first time the nonprofit offered money as a means to get the public to come forward with information related to arson in West Hawaii, Mallery-Sayre said.
In fact, the $5,000 has actually sat in an account since 2007 when Mallery-Sayre and her husband, Frank Sayre, worked with the Fire Department to create an “Arsonist Fund” via the Sayre Foundation to help apprehend those responsible for intentionally setting multiple fires on a single October day. The fires scorched more than 9,000 acres and came close to resorts and homes in South Kohala, she said.
“We offered (the reward) back then, but whoever it was either left or got put away — either way, they didn’t do it anymore,” she said. “We’ve had this fund for years now and it’s specifically for an arsonist reward. And, when this all started again, I contacted Chief Rosario and said, ‘Do you want to offer this reward again,’ and he said, ‘Yes.’”
She considers the foundation she and her husband started 18 years ago — after their 25-year-old son, Daniel, died in a hiking accident at Kapaloa Falls in Pololu Valley — to be the “caretaker” of the reward money.
“The money was donated by community members. It’s a totally community reward program, we have just been the caretaker of that fund,” Mallery-Sayre said. “It’s just one more example of them being able to donate to a 501(c)(3) get a tax write-off and do some good for the community.”
Tax deductible donations can be sent to P.O. Box 1285, Kailua-Kona, HI 96745.
Officials urge the public to report any suspicious activity area to Hawaii Island police by calling 935-3311.
Email Chelsea Jensen at cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com.
