CAPTAIN COOK — A family owned gas station in South Kona caught fire Monday morning after a vehicle apparently ignited while pumping gas.
The Hawaii Fire Department responded to Patel’s Spirit Gas Station about 8:50 a.m. for a reported vehicle on fire, according to the police and fire departments. Two engines attempted to extinguish two vehicles engulfed in flames parked in the gas pump area. The fire spread to an overhead roof and the front of the structure.
Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire at 9:04 a.m.
Jake Newlon, owner of Big Jake’s Island BBQ across the street form the gas station in Captain Cook, was outside his restaurant when the fire started.
“I saw smoke, then it just grew and grew,” Newlon said. “Then the whole place was on fire.”
Newlon said an explosion neighbors heard was tires blowing up. He also said that shortly before the fire, a gas tanker filled the station with 2,000 gallons of fuel.
Police said that through their investigation and speaking with witnesses, a spark possibly occurred while 58-year-old Douglas Kinnear was pumping gas into his friend’s early 1970s Toyota Land Cruiser.
The spark possibly ignited the gas and caused a fire that eventually spread to another vehicle and the building/gas pump area. Michael Graff, 28, was inside the vehicle that Kinnear was pumping gas into when this occurred and was able to exit the vehicle without injuries.
Another patron, 66-year-old Shanon Van Dyke, was inside her 2006 Scion SB parked at the adjacent pump when she saw a flash from the other car and flames spreading from the nozzle to the gas pump. She stated that she jumped out of her vehicle, fled the area and didn’t suffer any injuries.
Kinnear sustained second-degree burns and was transported to Straub Hospital on Oahu for further treatment.
An HFD fire inspector was on scene and related that the event that started the fire is impossible to determine, although static discharge is common and might have been the cause.
The proprietor of the gas station was visibly shaken and declined to comment after the fire was extinguished.
The southbound lane of Mamalahoa Highway was closed while the fire department worked to extinguish the blaze.
Email Laura Ruminski at lruminski@westhawaiitoday.com.