Updated at 11:15 a.m., Friday, August 3, 2001

Vandal's rampage starts Waipahu fire, damages cars

By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer

In a bizarre series of events, a vandal riding a stolen forklift toppled a power pole, that already had been cut by a chain saw, sparking a chain-reaction fire at two Waipahu car dealerships today.

Police said the vandals may have knocked out the electricity so they could break into buildings. Two nearby businesses were burglarized, police said.

Firefighters responded to a two-alarm fire at 3:15 a.m. on 94-223 Farrington Highway and found four fires in the car dealership area, said Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. Richard Soo.

Soo said a vandal used a chain saw to cut a power pole and toppled it with a stolen forklift. The pole's transformer fell on a car in the Schuman Carriage Waipahu Subaru lot, and burned the car.

Less than 100 yards away, a trail of oil from the transformer ignited a car in front of the Tony Group Body Shop paint shop area, then started the third and fourth fires by igniting the Tony Group paint shop and a trash bin, Soo said.

"At first, I only saw the power pole and I thought it was an industrial accident," Soo said. "Once I got on the property, I saw the burned cars, the structure fire, the dumpster fire. Then I said, 'Wow.' "

Firefighters controlled the fires by 3:35 a.m. and extinguished the fires shortly before 4 a.m.

No one was hurt in the fires.