Canoeing accident injures teenage girl
A teenage girl went to the hospital following a mishap involving racing canoes Saturday morning during a regatta in waters off Kailua Beach Park.
High school-age paddlers from five canoes were racing from the Lanikai side of the beach toward Kaneohe when they somehow got into trouble and overturned at about 9:30 a.m., Honolulu fire Capt. Terry Seelig said.
With about 24 people in the water, a swarm of volunteers and fire-rescue personnel helped pull paddlers from the water, Seelig said.
When the chaos subsided about 20 minutes later, one teenage girl reported sustaining an injury after being hit by an overturning canoe, he said.
Paramedics took the girl to a nearby hospital in satisfactory condition, a spokesman for the city Department of Emergency Services said.
One canoe was damaged, Seelig said.
The canoes are believed to have been part of the Project Grad Challenge, a fundraiser for Kalaheo High School’s Project Grad program.
Building blaze caused by bad power strip
A fire blamed on a faulty power strip caused an estimated $450,000 in damage to the second-floor warehouse of the POP Ocean and Marine Building at Pier 38, a Fire Department spokesman said.
The fire broke out at about 8:02 p.m. Friday and damage was confined to office and warehouse space belonging to Liferaft and Marine Safety Equipment Inc., an affiliate of POP, said fire Capt. Terry Seelig. Damage was estimated to be $200,000 to the building and $250,000 to contents, which included warehouse items, Seelig said.
Other parts of the 190,000-square-foot building, including POP’s store and warehouse, and the popular Nico’s at Pier 38 restaurant, were not damaged, he said.
No one is believed to have been in the building when the fire began and no one was injured.
The fire was brought under control by 8:22 p.m. Personnel from the Kalihi Uka station were on scene within three minutes and in all, five engines, two ladder trucks and a rescue company responded to the scene, Seelig said.
