Family Turns To Crowdfunding After Step-Dad Allegedly Burns Down Home

HAWAIIAN OCEAN VIEW ESTATES – Arson is to blame for a structure fire Friday evening on Pineapple Parkway and Hukilau Drive in the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates subdivision in Ka’u.

The fire department says three of the four occupants were away when the blaze was started. A male in his 50’s was taken into custody by HPD after claiming to have started the fire. He was not injured. The fire department is reporting the cause of the fire as arson.

On Friday night, Big Island Video News received a message on our Facebook page from a family member.

We need help!! My husband’s step dad burned down the family home in Ocean View, HI. They lost EVERYTHING. He was arrested. There was a restraining order granted yesterday, but it had not yet been served by the police, so he was still on the property. The family left the house and got a call from the police that the house was on fire and his step dad was arrested. Michelle Hatfield Prestriedge

Prestriedge posted a link to a crowdfunding website GoFundMe in order to raise funds for the family who “literally only have the clothes on their back left.”

Screen grab from the Go Fund Me site started after the arson in Ocean View.

The campaign aims to raise $50,000. The fire department estimates the loss from the fire to be $270,000.

The home was not insured and obtaining insurance was difficult and expensive due to their location. The RV shown in the picture was not able to be saved, as they live in a remote area and there were no fire hydrants. Fire trucks only had the water on their trucks and that wasn’t enough to control the fire. ALL of the family pictures….gone. Grandpa’s ashes and flag presented at his memorial….gone. Every precious material possession and heirloom is lost, but my family is ALIVE. I have no doubt he would have killed them had they stayed in the house. Instead he torched their entire life. Michelle Hatfield Prestriedge