Posted at 10:57 a.m., Monday, January 14, 2002

Fire damages Mo'ili'ili apartments

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

Firefighters roll up their hoses after extinguishing a fire that burned three apartments on Old Wai'alae Road, affecting University of Hawai'i-bound traffic today. Richard Ambo • The Honoluu Advertiser

An early morning fire displaced residents of three apartments today along Old Wai'alae Road near the Hawaiian Humane Society and snarled traffic on the first day of classes at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

Six adults and an 8-year-old child lived in the complex. The Red Cross was assisting them.

Nine fire units and 35 firefighters responded to the 7:02 a.m. alarm, said Battalion Chief James Arciero. The cause of the fire was still under investigation, but Arciero said residents reported flickering lights before the blaze. Damage estimates had not been determined, he said.

Residents and neighbors of the two-story unit, which is near the Kalele Road entrance to the UH Quarry, said they started smelling smoke about 6:30 a.m.

But not Kyle Kawafuchi, who was asleep in the burning apartment.

"I woke up to pounding on the door," he said. "Someone was yelling fire."

Kawafuchi, who is from California, moved into the unit about a week ago. As he stood in the alley outside the fire-gutted apartment, dressed only in his surf trunks, Kawafuchi said he was supposed to be getting ready for school at UH.

"But I don't think I'm going," he said.

Chad Takashima, a neighbor, woke up to the smell of smoke. He helped other neighbors who were trying to douse the fire with garden hoses and got so close that the flames left his face pink and red.

"There were big flames," he said. "My neighbors were yelling fire. By that time there were flames shooting out the windows."

Renee Ishii, another neighbor, saw the fire from her apartment and ran over to see if everyone had escaped. She ran up a narrow stairwell and opened the door of the burning apartment, which was empty, then shouted at a woman to get out of the next-door apartment.

"I tried to tell her the smoke is coming in, you need to get out, now," Ishii said.

The woman told Ishii she knew about the fire and wasn't ready to leave yet.

"There was no urgency in her voice," Ishii said. "Thank goodness the police got there. I think they knocked her door down."

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.