Mo-ped rider who drove off cliff identified
The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office on Friday identified the mo-ped driver who died Wednesday after falling off a cliff near Lanai Lookout as David Suzuki-Ung of Honolulu.
Suzuki-Ung, 52, died of head injuries from the mo-ped crash and the fall, the Examiner’s Office said.
Police said Suzuki-Ung was heading toward town on Kalanianaole Highway at about 2 p.m. Wednesday when he lost control and veered into a guardrail just before Lanai Lookout. He was thrown and fell about 100 feet down the side of the cliff.
Kahala home blaze blamed on oily rags
Honolulu firefighters determined Friday a fire that damaged a new house in Kahala on Thursday was caused by oil-soaked rags that workers had left on the roof.
Fire Capt. Terry Seelig said the rags were soaked with linseed oil, which heated up in the oxidization process and caused a fire that spread rapidly over the freshly oiled, wood-shingled roof.
The fire burned through a wall and into the living room of the single-story home at 4727 Aukai Ave., causing $200,000 in damage. Firefighters quickly brought the 3:47 p.m. fire under control, but the roof was significantly damaged.
Seelig suggested those working with drying oils — such as poppy seed oil, tung oil and walnut oil — lay the oil-soaked rags out flat to dry on a nonflammable surface outside or hang them on a laundry line. Once the rags have dried out, they can be thrown away.
Dropped cigarette started hotel room fire
A discarded cigarette started a small fire on an eighth-floor lanai of the Waikiki Banyan Hotel on Friday morning, an official said.
No one was in the eighth-floor room when the fire was reported at 11:28 a.m. It was extinguished at 11:41 a.m.
Capt. Terry Seelig, Honolulu Fire Department spokesman, said officials believe someone on a ninth-floor lanai discarded the cigarette, which landed on a lanai below, igniting a chair and clothes lying on it. The fire did not damage the hotel unit. No one was injured.
The hotel is at 201 Ohua Ave., a block makai of Ala Wai Boulevard.
Man arrested in threatening incident
Police arrested a 28-year-old Makiki man who allegedly threatened a man with a handgun at a Keeaumoku Street bus stop Friday.
Police said the suspect approached the 21-year-old victim at a bus stop at 12:30 a.m. and began saying disparaging things about him. The suspect then allegedly held a handgun to the victim’s head and fled. The victim called police, who apprehended the suspect.
Police did not say what the suspect’s motives were in the first-degree terroristic threatening incident.
No cause found in Houghtailing inferno
A fire investigator could not determine what caused a $222,000 fire that destroyed a house in Kalihi earlier this month, leaving eight people homeless.
Honolulu fire Capt. Terry Seelig said the fire investigator classified the cause of the July 1 fire on Houghtailing Street as undetermined.
Flames fully engulfed the home by the time firefighters arrived shortly after 12:45 a.m.
