The property where a fatal house fire occurred early Sunday morning was, years ago, the subject of a nuisance abatement complaint filed by Mayor Mitch Roth when he was still a county deputy prosecutor.
According to county tax records, the current owners of the property at 368 West Kawailani St., Lillian Storino and Kwok Kin Ko, bought the property in 2020, eight years after Roth, then a candidate for county prosecutor, declared the property a drug house and filed the complaint.
There is no evidence that the fire, which left one person dead, had anything to do with the situation that led up to Roth filing the complaint in 2012 against the property’s former owners and their tenants.
The civil complaint was filed after two search warrants were served one in March 2011 and another in October 2012, and illegal drugs were found on the premises on both occasions, according to court records.
According to a Hawaii Fire Department statement, 13 units responded to an alarm of a structure fire at the front home on the two-home property. The first unit arrived on scene at 3:17 a.m. to find flames venting from the front of the structure.
The fire was reported under control at 3:25 a.m. and extinguished at 3:30 a.m.
A partial collapse of the front of the 30-foot-by-40-foot home hindered initial search efforts. However, after the collapsed area was partially cleared during suppression efforts, firefighters discovered a victim in the front bedroom.
The identify of the victim has not yet been released.
Loss from the fire is estimated at $90,000, while the property value saved is estimated at $130,000, according to the fire department.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by police detectives and fire inspectors.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
