While police and fire officials raised the damage estimate to $2.5 million yesterday, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Wai'anae remained in stunned disbelief by news that arsonists had broken into the chapel at 85-574 Plantation Road on Tuesday and set the church ablaze.

The fire, which was started in broad daylight, followed the third break-in at the church in as many weeks. Half the complex was destroyed.

The chapel is expected to be closed from six months to a year while the church is rebuilt.

"I just don't know what to think," Louella King, longtime congregation member said, unable to hold back tears as she spoke. "This was more than a building. It was like losing an old friend, or a relative. I'm devastated."

King said her family and other congregation members helped labor missionaries build the church back in the early 1960s. King was 13 when she and others from her youth group helped dig the chapel's baptismal font, she said.

The church gymnasium, kitchen, library and an office were total losses. Other sections of the structure received heavy water damage. Police and fire investigators put the damage yesterday at $2.5 million, up from an initial $500,000 estimate the day before. The church chapel itself was not burned, but, depending on how structurally sound it is following the fire, may also have to be rebuilt, church officials said.

Arson inspectors from the Honolulu Police Department spent much of the day sorting through the charred remains collecting evidence to be sent to the lab. They expected to return to the crime scene again today. HPD investigators were being assisted by agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which is standard procedure when church arson is suspected of being a hate crime, police said.

Police said they were looking for more than one suspect, but denied earlier reports that they were searching for three suspects. They said the confusion might have stemmed from statements that investigators believe the fire had been ignited in several locations of the church.

Ruben Paet, Makakilo Stake president for the LDS Church said project managers for the church also came by to look at the damage. The managers will be working with a local assessor to determine whether to rebuild the destroyed sections or the entire church complex, said Paet. It will take about a month to decide. No matter what, Paet said it will be months before services can take place again at the Wai'anae Chapel.

"We definitely will be rebuilding," said Paet. "We're going to relocate our congregations to our Makakilo Stake Center, which is a much larger facility," he said. "We're planning to do that beginning this Sunday for as long as we need to."

The approximately 500 Wai'anae Chapel congregation members will join the Makakilo congregations this weekend. Four services on Sunday — every two hours beginning at 8 a.m. — will each accommodate about 300 people, said Paet.

Church Bishop Leo Tanielu said he had visited with folks from the congregation. Most, he said, were at a loss for words about the only fire in the church's history.

"They just can't believe someone would do something like this," said Tanielu, who said the church was completely renovated six years ago. "We are part of the community, and the chapel itself is like a landmark for the people of Wai'anae.

"But, you know, there's a reason for everything. You've got to look a the positive side of things."

King, the longtime congregation member, agreed.

"We'll just move on," she said. "Things like this will make us stronger. It will bring us closer together."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.