Kula car crash starts house fire

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KULA - A car that crashed into a vacant house on Lower Kula Road on Saturday afternoon apparently rammed a propane tank, setting both the car and the house on fire and leaving one person critically injured.

The fire at 4078 Lower Kula Road was reported around 5 p.m. Saturday; firefighters had the blaze under control but were still trying to extinguish it early Saturday evening, said county spokeswoman Mahina Martin.

The Fire Department closed Lower Kula Road between Kula Highway and Kula Community Road while they doused the flames.

Officials on Saturday night were still figuring out who was injured, how the accident occurred and how much damage was caused to the house.

Martin said the fire knocked out a fiber-optic telephone line, reducing phone service in Makawao, Kula and Paia for what was expected to be several hours.

Tak Sugimura, who lives about 100 yards from the house that burned, said he was watching a basketball game when he was startled by the sound of an explosion.

"We heard a large, large noise, and a couple minutes later flames came up," he said. "Something was burning that was pretty volatile."

When he went to look at the house, Sugimura said he talked with a bystander who had seen the incident.

"She said a woman was talking on a cell phone and missed the turn, and ran off the road," he said. "There's a drop-off up the road, and there's a house in a small gulch, and she hit the house. The car started burning, and then the house caught on fire," he said.