The Leiopapa o Kamehameha Building, or State Office Tower, will remain closed tomorrow morning. The building was closed following a gas leak that also shut down Beretania Street and snarled morning commuter traffic.

Russell Pang, spokesman for the governor, said the building will be checked for any gas smells in the morning.

Power must also be restored to the building.

Employees who work in the building are being asked not to report to their offices until they get a go-ahead from their supervisor.

About 300 state workers have offices in the tower.

Also, a state Land Use Commission meeting on the Hoopili project that was scheduled for tomorrow has been canceled. The meeting was supposed to be held in the tower. The meeting was also canceled today.

Meanwhile, police have reopened all lanes of Beretania Street, which was closed for hours because of the gas leak.

Gas Company crews will have to return tomorrow to make more repairs to a gas line.
At about 1 p.m., power was restored to about 50 customers.

Electricity is still out at the State Office Tower because state crews are assessing its wiring.

Beretania and several other Downtown streets were closed early this morning following a gas leak. The leak was found about 8:30 a.m. on South Beretania Street across from the Leiopapa o Kamehameha Building, also known as the State Office Tower.

The road closures caused backups for commuters heading Downtown from H-1 Freeway and the Pali and Likelike highways.

Beretania Street had been closed from Punchbowl to Alakea streets, and Alakea had been closed from Beretania to Hotel streets while the Gas Company searched for the leak.

Shortly after 10 a.m., police reopened three lanes of Alakea.

Nada Mangialetti, of Makakilo, was on her way to a meeting Downtown when she was turned around by closed streets.

"It's like a ghost town," she said.

Fire Capt. Terry Seelig said workers in the Leiopapa o Kamehameha Building at 235 S. Beretania reported smelling gas about 10:20 last night.

Seelig said firefighters detected gas inside the building and were investigating when an explosion took place on a lower floor, in the communications room on the mezzanine level of the building. The explosion caused some equipment to punch it way through a window. The equipment, which looked like it include some sort of wiring, partially hanging out the window this morning.

Firefighters determined that gas from a source outside the building had likely leaked into conduits and created a build-up in the room.

At 12:40 a.m., the area was sealed off.

Hawaiian Electric Company shut off power to the area to reduce the potential for sparking. Honolulu firefighters also remain on the scene.

Several buildings in the area were without electricity this morning, including the State Office Tower, the Hemmeter Building and Washington Place. An outage also was reported at Alii Place on Alakea Street.

The state Capitol was open for business.