Police: Oil lamp might have caused Pahoa fire

An overturned oil lantern might have caused the fire that destroyed the historic Akebono Theatre and two other buildings in downtown Pahoa, according to police.

Lt. Greg Esteban said that “may be a likely fire source” based on interviews as part of the investigation, which is ongoing.

Broken glass was found at the scene, but it’s unclear if it’s from a lantern, he said.

He said police don’t think there was any criminal intent, meaning there’s no evidence that someone intentionally started the fire late in the evening Jan. 15.

“We’re leaning toward an accidental type of cause, as opposed to criminal or malicious,” he said.

Esteban said the fire started on the outside rear wall of a vacant building at 15-2948 Pahoa Village Road, where a pawn shop was most recently located.

That building was destroyed along with Luquin’s Mexican Restaurant and the nearly 100-year-old theater.

The theater was the oldest in Hawaii still in use, according to the book, “Theatres of Hawaii.”

A cement wall on another adjacent building, where a kava bar is located, likely kept the fire from causing more damage.

Esteban said a report of a fight nearby is not thought to be connected to the fire. He said that occurred in a parking lot, rather than where the fire started.

The Fire Department’s fire prevention bureau couldn’t be reached for comment by press time Monday.

The fire might have been the town’s largest since a 1953 blaze, which, according to hawaiihistory.org, destroyed “half the business section in Pahoa.”

A book about local businesses, titled “Big Islands Moms &Pops Before Wal-Marts and K-Marts,” includes a section about the fire, which it said was caused by a wood stove in a tofu plant.

“After the village fire in 1953, the Pahoa residents requested a fire department be built and by going through the government system they got their request and a Pahoa Fire Station was completed in 1969,” the book said.

Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.