An early morning fire tore through the kitchen of the Leeward Drive-In, a longtime Waipahu eatery, in bad news for the restaurant and the regulars who have eaten there for generations.

• Firefighters got the call just after 4:30 a.m. and found the kitchen fully ablaze.
• No one was hurt, and there were no witnesses to how it started.
• Crews lost time breaking in because the building was heavily fortified after years of break-ins.
• A kitchen holds plenty of things that can start or feed a fire, so investigators are not naming a cause yet.
• Longtime customers who have come for breakfast, lunch and dinner for decades call the loss a blow to the community.

Outlook: Investigators plan to interview a worker who was at the scene, and the restaurant looks set to stay closed while the cause is determined and damage repaired.