Fourteen firefighters responded to the blaze yesterday at a vacant Safeway store in Waipahu.
Officials blame arson.
The Honolulu Advertiser Fire Department spokes-man Capt. Richard Soo said the fire started when a pile of cardboard boxes and other items left outside the store were set on fire. Soo said an exterior sprinkler activated during the fire, helping to extinguish the blaze. Firefighters had to cut a hole in a roll-up door to see that the fire had not spread inside the building, Soo said. Phillip Keipper, principal broker and property manager for the shopping center, said the store closed Nov. 30 and has been empty since the last tenants, Bank of Hawai'i, moved out Feb. 20.