Eighth-floor apartment unit in Makiki burns
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
Fire destroyed a Makiki apartment last night, but there were no reports of injuries.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser
The 8:04 p.m. fire was in an eighth-floor apartment at 1616 Liholiho St.
Firefighters converge on Liholiho Street in Makiki, where an apartment fire destroyed a high-rise unit last night.
Lyn Liu, who lives directly above the burned unit, said she first heard glass breaking. She looked out of her bedroom and saw orange flames issuing from windows below.
She and her husband, Glenn, ran out of their ninth-floor apartment and started pounding on other doors.
"We started pounding next door because there's an older couple there and I didn't know if they could hear anything," Glenn Liu said.
He said they finally got the attention of the elderly couple and escorted them to safety.
Paul Ching, who lives in a 15th-floor apartment, became aware of the fire when he heard the alarm go off and shouts of "fire!" by residents of an adjacent building. He didn't see any flames or smoke, but joined in the evacuation of his building.
"When I got down, here I was like, 'Whoa, I haven't seen that in a while,' " Ching said.
Capt. Richard Soo of the Honolulu Fire Department said the fire was brought under control 25 minutes after the 8:04 alarm.
Soo said the fire appeared to have started in one of the two bedrooms in the unit. Investigators were expected to return today to determine the cause.
Total damage was estimated at $120,000, according to Soo. Two parked cars were damaged by debris.
Resident manager Dottie Collins said the apartment's owners do not live in the unit and no one was home. She said a fire in 1981 destroyed a 14th-floor apartment.
Collins credited off-duty firefighter Alden Rico, who lives in the building, with assisting in the evacuation last night. Once the blaze was extinguished, residents who were forced out of the building broke into applause to show appreciation for the city fire crew's efforts.
