Waiakea hotel's lobby burns

By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — The main lobby and administrative building of the Waiakea Villas Hotel was destroyed by fire early yesterday.

The cause of the blaze, reported at 1:48 a.m., was not immediately determined.

"We have to let it cool down some more before we can enter," said fire Capt. Quince Mento of the Waiakea Station.

About 60 residents in the two closest residential units were evacuated as a precaution, said police Lt. Steven Guillermo.

"They were very cooperative when you realize they were rousted out of bed in the middle of the night," said Guillermo.

Mento credited security workers and police with quickly removing residents from danger.

"Thank God no one was hurt," said manager Gwen De Coito, who has operated the hotel and business complex under several owners for nine years.

Neither she nor the fire department had an estimate of the loss.

The hotel was opened in 1972 by C. Brewer and Co., which built the resort on the site of a former factory that made building products from sugar-cane waste.

This was the third fire there in recent years.

De Coito said no one was working in the lobby building when the fire started.

The operator of the hotel is Hotels in Paradise of Honolulu, formerly known as Shanghai Investment Co.