A man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by an Oʻahu Circuit Court judge for starting the fire that burned the Waikīkī surfboard racks and destroyed about 500 boards in October 2021.
Glenn A. Helton was also sentenced to 10 years on an unrelated robbery charge and five years on an unrelated arson charge. He will serve the sentences concurrently as part of a plea agreement.
Helton was ordered to pay $414,000 to the City and County of Honolulu, which owned and operated the surfboard racks.
Back in 2021, firefighters called to the scene found several storage racks of surfboards at a beach alleyway in flames and evacuated the adjacent buildings: the Moana Surfrider Hotel and the Honolulu Police Department substation.
The blaze scorched the exterior of the hotel, which first opened in 1901, and spread to the substation's walls, roof and eaves, the Honolulu Fire Department said.
