Hawai'i briefs
Advertiser Staff and News Services
HONOLULU
Resident beats Chinatown fire
A 30-year-old woman burned her fingers but saved her Chinatown Gateway Plaza apartment last night when she battled a kitchen fire with a portable extinguisher.
Firefighters responded to a 5:49 p.m. alarm at 1031 Nu'uanu Ave. to find the tenant suffering from minor second-degree burns, for which she was treated at the scene.
Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. Richard Soo said, "The fire could easily have gutted the apartment, but by using the extinguisher in the early stages she was able to prevent it from spreading."
The cause was under investigation. Damage to the 16th-floor apartment was estimated at $25,000.
Four companies responded to the alarm, and the fire was reported under control within 10 minutes.
Grants for aid to women, children
The Hawai'i Women's Legal Foundation is accepting grant applications until June 19 from organizations and projects working to improve the legal status and welfare of women and children in Hawai'i. Call Bernice Littman at 521-9219.
WINDWARD
Two lost hikers rescued by air
Two hikers lost above Sacred Falls were rescued by the Honolulu Fire Department last night.
The two O'ahu residents in their mid-20s were scrambling down a dry streambed in hopes of reaching the shoreline, but could have plummeted off cliffs surrounding the falls, HFD Capt. Richard Soo said.
The woman hiker apparently fell and suffered an ankle injury. She was airlifted by helicopter at about 9:30 p.m. and taken to a staging area at Hau'ula Elementary School. The chopper returned for the other hiker, a man, who was rescued at 9:58 p.m.
The hikers called 911 on a cell phone at 7:45 p.m., but didn't know where they were, Soo said. Searchers got a break when a Punalu'u resident reported seeing a light flashing in the mountains two miles above Sacred Falls.
The helicopter crew spotted them with a searchlight a few minutes later.
Soo said it appears the couple used Ma'akua Trail, closed after the rockslide at Sacred Falls that killed eight people in May 1999. The case will be referred to police for investigation.
NEIGHBOR ISLANDS
Rotary pays for immunizations
LIHU'E, Kaua'i — The Rotary Clubs of Kaua'i have given the Kaua'i Medical Clinic $10,000 to help pay for immunizing people unable to afford such treatment.
The money comes from the island's five rotary clubs, with matching money from the Rotary Hawai'i District, and a grant from the Blane Community Immunization program. The clinic reports that about 15 percent of its patients will qualify for free or reduced-cost vaccines for flu and pneumonia, and that the Rotary gift will cover more than 390 flu and 90 pneumonia vaccines.
