KULA - An estimated $250,000 in damages was incurred Saturday when a woman crashed a truck into a vacant house, ramming into a propane tank and setting the home on fire on Lower Kula Road.
Information on the condition of the woman, a 38-year-old Kula resident, was unavailable Sunday. Police said she was driving alone when she apparently left the roadway and ran into a fence, then a propane tank outside the residence.
The truck and tank caught fire, also igniting the house. No one was in the home at the time of the crash.
The woman was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center in critical condition with life-threatening injuries.
Fire crews from Makawao, Kula and Kahului all responded to 4078 Lower Kula Road after receiving a call shortly before 5 p.m. They had the fire under control within 30 minutes and extinguished it at 7:14 p.m., according to acting Battalion Chief Lee Mainaga.
Fiber-optic lines in the area were damaged and 911 service was interrupted but has since been restored.
Lt. Bobby Hill of the Maui Police Department Traffic Section said that he could not confirm a report from a bystander that the woman may have been talking on a cell phone just before the crash occurred.
