Investigators will return to the University of Hawaii’s lower campus today to try to learn the cause of an unusually stubborn fire that continued to smoulder Monday, more than a day after Lower Campus Building 171 burst into flames.
Honolulu Fire Capt. Terry Seelig on Monday surveyed the charred remains of the wooden, portable building next to the Stan Sheriff Center that took about 50 firefighters most of Sunday to battle and spewed smoke across the H-1 freeway.
The damage was estimated at $1 million to the building and $250,000 for the contents, which included computerized and paper records for payroll, vendor payments and student loans for the entire UH system of about 60,000 students and 7,000 to 8,000 faculty and staff.
Similar, persistent building fires are common on the mainland but relatively rare in Honolulu, Seelig said.
The roof of the building had been layered several times over its estimated 30-year life and contained a "sandwich" of paper, tar, multiple layers of wood, heavy timber — and especially corrugated metal that let flames spread quickly inside the roof, Seelig said.
"There were multiple layers of roof," Seelig said. "You normally don’t see that here. … We normally see ordinary construction made out of lightweight joists and beams that burn through much quicker."
The fire was first reported at 8:03 a.m. Sunday, and firefighters had it under control — but not extinguished — at 8:21 a.m.
With firefighters cutting into the roof to get access to the fire, flames began to flare again around 10:30 a.m. Sunday, and the roof to the 2,500- to 3,000-square-foot building began to fall in.
"Once the roof was compromised, we got our guys off of it and out from under it, and then it collapsed," Seelig said. "It just sagged and fell inward and prevented us from getting to the seat of the fire."
UH officials provided backhoes that brought down parts of the damaged building and gave firefighters better access, Seelig said.
"Without pulling down parts of the building, we wouldn’t have been able to cool it down as quickly as we did," Seelig said. "Even though it looks gross and clumsy to have a building collapse on itself, it was done with precision. It was a pretty surgical process."
UH officials on Monday sent an email blast to the "University ohana" that said the loss of records is not as severe as originally estimated on Sunday.
"The bottom line is that the damage and loss of documents or information is not nearly as severe as has been reported," the email said. "We are grateful for that and grateful that no one was injured in this fire. We are waiting for the fire department to completely contain and extinguish the fire so they can enter the building and bring out materials for UH staff to assess, sort and retrieve whatever can be salvaged."
In particular, UH officials said:
» "All payroll information resides on our mainframe computer system and is undamaged. Payroll will continue uninterrupted."
» "All student loan information is also stored electronically and resides with our loan collection service off-site. This information is undamaged and student loan processes will continue uninterrupted."
» "Original documents, such as promissory notes associated with original student loans, were stored on paper in a fireproof cabinet, along with other historical documentation. We will not know status until fire officials bring materials, furniture and other items out so staff can sort through and see what is damaged and what is not. But these damaged documents will not affect the timely payments, collections and other transactions associated with student loans."
» "Other paper functions, such as pre-audit processing of documents including internal travel reimbursements, vendor payments, etc., were carried out in this building, but the original requests and corresponding documentation are all stored elsewhere at their points of origin on servers or on paper, and can be reconstructed. This will take time, but the information itself is secure and exists elsewhere in the system or outside the system."
