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Chemical spill clears Iwilei building
A woman suffered minor injuries last night when a chemical she was helping to unload spilled on her.
The woman, described as in her 20s, was unloading a box of chemicals for Courier Corporation of Hawai'i at 500 Alakawa St. at about 6:15 p.m. when one of the boxes began to leak, said Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. Kenison Tejada. He said the liquid spilled onto the woman's hands and she began to feel light-headed.
She and other workers evacuated about five workers from the building and called for help. HFD dispatched an engine company and a hazmat team to the building, across the street from the Home Depot store.
The hazmat crew determined that the liquid was an aluminum chloride disinfectant cleaner. Tejada said the chemical would have posed a danger if it were highly concentrated, but he said it was diluted.
Tejada said the woman was not seriously injured.
Pearl City crash leaves man injured
A 21-year-old Schofield man was in critical condition at The Queen's Medical Center yesterday following an accident at the intersection of Kamehameha Highway and Acacia Road in Pearl City, police said.
He was a passenger in a red 1992 Jeep Cherokee which, at 1:51 a.m., was turning left from the eastbound lanes of Kamehameha onto Acacia.
A silver 1984 Datsun pickup truck headed west on Kamehameha ran a red light and struck the Jeep. The passenger was ejected from the rear seat onto the roadway.
The Jeep's driver, an 18-year-old Schofield woman, was not hurt. Also hurt in the crash was another passenger, a 19-year-old woman, listed in guarded condition at Queen's.
The driver of the truck, a 42-year-old Kapolei man, also was taken to Queen's, where he remained yesterday in fair condition.
Police believe the truck may have been speeding.
Hickam offers standoff details
Military officials this week released information on a Dec. 28 standoff at Hickam Air Force Base that ended peacefully after a man entered the installation illegally, refused to get out of his car, and then made "threatening motions" with a pair of bayonets to security forces who approached with weapons drawn.
Tech Sgt. Ami Masaniai, 15th Security Forces Squadron flight chief, said the man was shouting racial slurs and threatening to kill patrol officers at the scene after he failed to stop and show identification to enter the base.
The man was stopped at the Air Mobility Command passenger terminal parking lot, where he jumped from his car with a bayonet in each hand, Air Force officials said.
Masaniai, who was able to get close enough to the man to grab his wrists and take away the knives, said he may have been attempting "suicide by police."
No one was injured, and the man was turned over to the FBI.
Maj. Michael Kifer, 15th Security Forces Squadron commander, said Masaniai's action was "the single most courageous act of selflessness" he had seen in his career.
