HILO — A 37-year-old Mountain View man is in police custody on suspicion of arson after a two-story wooden structure was destroyed by fire Saturday night in Livingston subdivision in Mountain View.
According to a police log Douglas Richard Cordeiro Jr. was booked on suspicion of first-degree arson at 3:35 a.m. Sunday after bring arrested on Maui Street in Livingston. The Tribune-Herald was unable to reach police and it was unclear at press time Sunday if the charge, a Class A felony punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment upon conviction, had been filed.
Cordeiro was charged on an outstanding warrant for contempt of court and bail on that charge was set at $3,000.
According to a written Hawaii Fire Department statement, the alarm was sounded at 9:06 p.m. Saturday after dispatchers received a call of a suicidal man threatening to burn himself and the structure.
Seven units responded, including a medical unit, with the first unit arriving on-scene at 9:35 p.m. Firefighters staged for police to clear the area because weapons had been reported. The 30-foot-by-30-foot, two-story structure on Maui Street was already engulfed n flames, according to the statement.
The fire was reported under control at 10 p.m. and extinguished at 10:25 p.m.
The initial report was of possibly two people in the house, but searches didn’t turn up remains.
Property loss was estimated at $145,000.
Cordeiro was found at a nearby Maui Street address, according to the police log.
Court records indicate Cordeiro has 42 criminal convictions dating back to 1999, including 15 on felony charges, including kidnapping, sexual assault, attempted sexual assault, and numerous drug and drug-paraphernalia convictions. As of Sunday, he was listed as non-compliant by the state’s sex offender registry.
Police also have opened an arson investigation into an apparently unrelated Thursday morning structure fire on King Kamehameha Drive in Tiki Gardens subdivision in Pahoa, according to a police log.
According to a written Hawaii Fire Department statement, 10 units responded to a 9:05 a.m. alarm with the first unit arriving on-scene at 9:16 a.m.
Arriving firefighters found the previously burned, abandoned, uninhabitable single-story home 25 percent involved. The fire was reported under control at 9:22 a.m. and extinguished at 9:45 p.m.
No dollar estimate was given but the structure was described as a total loss.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
