Posted on: Thursday, November 14, 2002

Aliamanu fire displaces 24 families

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

A fire Tuesday at Aliamanu Military Reservation — the fourth in 15 months — is expected to keep 24 families out of their homes until tomorrow, officials said.

The 4:30 p.m. underground electrical cable fire in the Rim Loop Drive area resulted in power being cut to a section of three-story junior enlisted apartments, said Deborah Coble, an AMR resident.

Coble, whose husband is in the Navy and stationed at Pearl Harbor, mounted a campaign seeking housing improvements at AMR after a June 11 fire in an underground distribution box resulted in a power failure to 30 duplexes on Olive Place and Shower Place.

AMR residents have complained that there is a power failure at least once a week because of faulty aluminum ground wiring, and a water line break or sewer spill at least once a month.

"It's the same thing — the poor wiring. It's happening again," Coble said yesterday. "This is getting absolutely ridiculous."

The Army, which operates the 2,000-unit housing complex, previously identified $16 million in needed repairs to replace underground aluminum wiring.

Officials said the near-term solution was a $1.2 million "Cable Cure" contract to inject liquid silicone around electrical cables to make them less susceptible to ground fault failure.

Bob Warner, a 25th Infantry Division (Light) spokesman, said an effort is under way to find and replace secondary power lines.

"It's not that they are not fixing it (the problem). Some of these take time to locate," Warner said. "What we're trying to do is deal with the problem as fast as we can." Coble said the measure is a Band-Aid solution the Army is trying to use until the housing is privatized, which is not expected to happen for several years. Warner said power was restored yesterday at 6 a.m. but safety checks were being done before residents returned.