Honolulu police have arrested a 15-year-old boy suspected of setting two fires at the Firestone Tire & Service Center in Kalihi that caused more than $200,000 in damage.

Officers with the District 5 Crime Reduction Unit apprehended the boy yesterday after conducting operations in the area for over a week, police said. The case is being handled by detectives with the arson detail.

"The D5 crime-reduction unit with the assistance of the community was able to identify and arrest a 15-year-old Kalihi youth for the two Firestone fires," said Maj. Susan Ballard, head of District Five operations.

On Feb. 1, the Firestone center at 1414 Dillingham Blvd. was scorched by an arsonist for the second time in two weeks. The fire started in a bunker filled with tires and spread to an adjoining structure.

Fire officials estimate damage at more than $220,000, so extensive that the mauka side of the building will have to be razed. The fire followed a Jan. 22 blaze that burned a bunker filled with 200 tires.

Before the Feb. 1 fire, trash bins in and around the Firestone property had been set afire for more than three weeks between the hours of 8 and 10:30 p.m, police said. Arson investigators suspect the same people starting the trash bin fires are responsible for the Firestone blazes.

Major criminal offenses fell in all categories in Honolulu last year but arson cases rose, according to statistics gathered by the FBI and HPD.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.