By Hawaii 24/7 Staff

Fire/rescue crews responded to an 11:23 p.m. alarm Wednesday (March 13) to the intersection of Hawi Road and Akoni Pule Highway for a structure fire at the Kohala Village Inn & Hub in Kohala.

Crews arrived to find the restaurant building engulfed in flames with fire coming out of the roof. A 2,000 gallon propane tank was 10 feet from the burning building and 15 guests at the hotel were evacuated.

Crews used three turrent–nozzels on firefighting vehicles along with multiple firefighters on firehoses to prevent the fire from spreading from the restaurant. Later firefighters were able to get into the structure to get to the main source of the fire in the center of the building.

Crews had the fire under control by 3:27 a.m. and were still on the scene at daybreak to insure the fire is put out and to investigate the cause of the blaze. The fire partially collapsed the roof, the exterior walls and most of the interior walls of the building were still intact.

The loss from the fire is estimated to be $1M with $2M saved from the fire. There were no injuries reported in the blaze.