Posted on: Wednesday, March 2, 2005
Kahului businesses regroup after fire
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
KAHULUI, Maui — Signs of commerce began to sprout at fire-ravaged Kahului Shopping Center yesterday as a couple of stores reopened for business and others with minor or no damage prepared to reopen today.
Timothy Hurley • The Honolulu Advertiser Three of the center's largest stores — Ah Fook's Super Market, the Salvation Army Thrift Store and T.J.'s Oriental Food Mart — were gutted, while other businesses endured substantial smoke and water damage.
Other tenants escaped the inferno completely.
"It's a miracle," said Jennifer Brittin, owner of Employers Options and Horses R Us, two businesses that reopened yesterday. "I don't know how it missed us."
Employers Options, a temporary-employment firm, and Horses R Us, which sells saddles, horse gear and western wear, sit side by side in a building near the Salvation Army store, where fire investigators believe the wind-driven blaze started.
"We are so lucky," Brittin said. "If the wind would have changed, we would have been gone, and Ah Fook's would still be there."
Donations to the Salvation Army may be sent to the agency's Maui office at 35 Hale Kuai St., Suite 105, Kihei, HI 96753, or donors may call (800) SALARMY and designate their donation for Kahului fire relief. For more information, contact Capt. Thomas Taylor at (808) 875-2310 or Capt. Christi Taylor at (808) 875-2038. "I was praying that it wasn't going to burn my store. And thank God, he saved my store. God is really good," she said.
Earlier in the day, the center's tenants discussed the logistics of reopening in a meeting with property owner A&B Properties Inc. Officials said it was too early to discuss the future of the shopping center but they would work to reopen some stores and look to relocate others. At Del's Farm Supply, a full crew was working to get the store open for today. Jan Gohr, regional manager, said she wanted to open Monday, but authorities wouldn't let them. "That's OK. We are very grateful we can open at all," Gohr said.
Title Guaranty Escrow Services Inc. was another business that survived unscathed.
"We were so lucky the way the wind was blowing," said Marie Robello at the front desk.
Robello received a call from her daughter Sunday telling her of the fire. She resisted the temptation to drive to Kahului from her Kula home. When she came to work Monday, she was afraid of what she would find.
"To my horror, it was far worse than I expected," she said.
Salvation Army officials were estimating thrift store losses would reach $250,000.
Salvation Army Capt. Christi Taylor, Maui County co-coordinator, said she was heartbroken.
"The Boy Scouts and hundreds of Maui's schoolchildren helped us last Christmas to collect thousands of food items that stocked our emergency food pantry for five months. Sadly, they're all gone," she said.
Her husband, Capt. Thomas Taylor, said, "We're trying to ... focus on what's left, not what's lost. With the community's help, we can rebuild to assist those who need it most."
Reach Timothy Hurley at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.
But much of the old shopping center lay in ruins behind a ring of yellow police tape and temporary fencing. Fire crews continued to respond to flare-ups two days after one of the biggest fires to hit Maui destroyed half of the 54-year-old mall.
Carmelita Uy, owner of Maui Home Furnishings at the Kahului Shopping Center, stopped by the complex yesterday with her granddaughter, Erin Ong. Uy was one of the fortunate ones: Her store survived Sunday night's fire. Three of the center's largest stores weren't so lucky.
Carmelita Uy's emotions were bittersweet. The devastation across the courtyard was in stark contrast to her Maui Home Furnishings shop.
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