Hawai'i briefs

Advertiser Staff

CENTRAL O'AHU

Two families left homeless by fire

Two families were displaced early yesterday after a fire in Waipi'o destroyed a two-story home.

Honolulu Fire Department Capt. Kenison Tejada said the Red Cross helped find temporary shelter for a couple and their child and a man and his two children.

The children were all under the age of 6, Tejada said.

He said that shortly after 12:30 a.m., one of the men in the house at 94-1073 Leomana Place heard a loud noise and went downstairs to investigate. He discovered a fire in the garage, where a dirt bike and some weightlifting equipment were stored.

The smoke alarm went off and the man went room to room, waking the other occupants, who escaped through the back of the house.

Firefighters arrived a few moments later and found the house fully engulfed, Tejada said. About 30 firefighters worked until 1 a.m. to control the blaze and until 2 a.m. to extinguish it.

The fire caused about $300,000 damage, Tejada said.

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

Big crowd likely for Mink event

Public interest in a ceremony to rename the Pa'ia Post Office in honor of the late Democratic Congresswoman Patsy Mink has been so high that postal officials have increased parking and brought in a shuttle bus for the event.

The Pa'ia Post Office will be renamed the Patsy Takemoto Mink Post Office today at 10 a.m.

Mink's husband, John, and daughter, Wendy, will unveil a bronze plaque at the post office honoring the Democrat. The post office serves the area where Mink was born and raised.

She died Sept. 28, 2002, at age 74.

Parking will be allowed at the Pa'ia Community Center on Hana Highway, next to the Hawaiian Protestant Church, post office spokesman Marc Dixon said.

A shuttle bus will transport people to and from the community center and the post office from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.