CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
One mauka lane and two Waikiki lanes were reopened Tuesday morning after firefighters extinguished a fire fueled by a ruptured gas line on Kapahulu Avenue at Date Street.
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A planing machine preparing Kapahulu Avenue for repaving struck a gas line and burst into flames Monday evening.
According to a Hawaii Gas spokesman, a blade from the machine struck the gas line and a spark from the impact likely ignited the fire. The incident occurred after 8:30 p.m.
According to an Emergency Medical Services report, two men who were on the vehicle were injured. One sustained serious burns and another was injured after falling approximately 8 feet from the top of the vehicle. Both were taken to an area hospital. As of 10:15 p.m., the machine was still burning atop the leak.
Honolulu firefighters are controlling the blaze with water and Hawaii Gas personnel have been dispatched to the scene to stop the leak and repair the line. Police closed Kapahulu Avenue from Palani Avenue to Mooheau Street.
Man pleads guilty to manslaughter
Joseph Kahawai pleaded guilty in Circuit Court on Monday to manslaughter in the 2013 death of 51-year-old Janine Meyer.
Kahawai was arrested on suspicion of murder in 2013, two weeks after Meyer’s body was discovered in a trash bin outside a Waikiki apartment on Oct. 28.
Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 1.