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Mystery blast hits Lihu‘e
by Blake Jones - The Garden Island
An explosion that has yet to be explained was heard and felt in Lihu‘e Sunday night between 8:30 and 9:30, according to witnesses.
County Public Information Officer Mary Daubert said a police officer did check out the area in response to calls but was not able to determine the cause.
Police Commissioner Tom Iannucci, who was waiting with his kids at the Lihu‘e Taco Bell drive-through, said there was no mistaking the noise and “slight concussion” to the car, which he likened to a dynamite explosion.
“Being a former Marine who served in a war zone, Beirut, I know exactly what it was,” Iannucci said.
Iannucci called 911 to report the blast and was told by the dispatch operator that there had been other calls about an explosion in the area.
“It was too large to be something simple,” he noted, adding that he did not see anything, smoke or otherwise. “To ... hear it as loud as I heard it and feel the slight jolt in the vehicle, something happened.”
Don Uohara was relaying cables with a Wasa Electrical Services crew at the stop light at Kaumuali’i Highway and Nawiliwili Road when he, too, heard a “pretty loud” boom.
“We turned around and said, ‘What was that?’” Uohara said of his and coworkers’ reactions.
Kauai Film Commissioner Art Umezu said he did not know of any pyrotechnics that took place in the area for the film “Tropic Thunder,” which is being produced on-island. The movie follows actors shooting a war flick who become their characters after a strange series of events.
“They don’t believe they’ve done anything, especially on a Sunday,” Umezu said after talking to the film’s production office.
According to Capt. David Bukoski of the Fire Prevention Bureau, there have been explosions and testing in the past for the film, but nothing was scheduled or permitted for Sunday.
Bukowski said the Fire Department has a good relationship with the certified and licensed pyrotechnicians.
“They are very cognizant of the public,” Bukoski said of the crew.
• Blake Jones, business writer/assistant editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or bjones@kauaipubco.com.
County Public Information Officer Mary Daubert said a police officer did check out the area in response to calls but was not able to determine the cause.
Police Commissioner Tom Iannucci, who was waiting with his kids at the Lihu‘e Taco Bell drive-through, said there was no mistaking the noise and “slight concussion” to the car, which he likened to a dynamite explosion.
“Being a former Marine who served in a war zone, Beirut, I know exactly what it was,” Iannucci said.
Iannucci called 911 to report the blast and was told by the dispatch operator that there had been other calls about an explosion in the area.
“It was too large to be something simple,” he noted, adding that he did not see anything, smoke or otherwise. “To ... hear it as loud as I heard it and feel the slight jolt in the vehicle, something happened.”
Don Uohara was relaying cables with a Wasa Electrical Services crew at the stop light at Kaumuali’i Highway and Nawiliwili Road when he, too, heard a “pretty loud” boom.
“We turned around and said, ‘What was that?’” Uohara said of his and coworkers’ reactions.
Kauai Film Commissioner Art Umezu said he did not know of any pyrotechnics that took place in the area for the film “Tropic Thunder,” which is being produced on-island. The movie follows actors shooting a war flick who become their characters after a strange series of events.
“They don’t believe they’ve done anything, especially on a Sunday,” Umezu said after talking to the film’s production office.
According to Capt. David Bukoski of the Fire Prevention Bureau, there have been explosions and testing in the past for the film, but nothing was scheduled or permitted for Sunday.
Bukowski said the Fire Department has a good relationship with the certified and licensed pyrotechnicians.
“They are very cognizant of the public,” Bukoski said of the crew.
• Blake Jones, business writer/assistant editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or bjones@kauaipubco.com.
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Ronald Pray wrote on Oct 17, 2009 5:14 AM:
I am a former U.S. Coast Guard Search and rescue team member at Barbers Point. I never read the scathing November 28 article about a rescue I did in 1977 while on leave.
In November of 1977 I had visited Kauai on leave and hiked the Na Pali coast to go camping. On the trail I saw some hikers in front of me ignore the cries of a man saying he was poisoned by mushrooms he had eaten. I know that there are many poisonous varieties from the orange mushrooms to the copelandia varieties which are deadly. I stopped and he was vomitting and telling me that he was dying. I laid my sleeping bag down onto the ground and made him comfortable then lit my coleman stove and cooked him soup to eat. He ate the soup and continued vomitting. He said that he needed immediate attention. I ecouraged him to vommit everything out of his stomache.
I asked him if he would be OK while I ran back to Haena for help and he said please do that.
I ran from his location sometimes skipping the zig-zags in the trails steep inclines jumping straight down to the trail below. I had injured my Achilles tendon by twisting my ankle which put me on light duty upon returning to Barbers Point.
I then knocked on the first door I found and asked them to contact the U.S. Coast Guard that there was a man stranded on the trail who needed immediate attention.
The Fire Department went in on the trail and found the man walking out on his own. This is why the writer in 1977 claimed that I had misread the situation and that is why he called my rescue "The Rescue that wasn't". I believe that had that man died, his death would have been on my ticket and given that rescuing folks was my business I had a responsibility to perform.
We may never know what part my inducing vomiting played in the recovery of this man. I'd like to believe that it played a major role in his quick recovery.
I am proud that I stood for the highest traditions of the U.S. Coast Guard on that fateful day on the Na Pali Coast.To this day, I have a lump in my Achilles Tendon which hurts on certain days to remind me of that day I ran into that man.
Malama Pono,
Former 3rd Class Petty Officer Ronald Pray "