Burning home sparks fires of aloha

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer

KAILUA — Brian Tom's family home of 46 years was destroyed by fire two weeks ago, but in the loss he has found reason to be grateful.

Brian Tom examines his burned-out Toyota van after a fire Oct. 11 destroyed his Kailua home and two cars. Tom, of the Hawaii Air National Guard, has been overwhelmed by support from friends, neighbors and strangers. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

The stories about that Oct. 11 night on North Kainalu Drive are "goose bump" material, Tom said. "But our basic need is to thank the heroes that pulled my mother from the house and supported my daughter when she arrived home to find her home on fire."

Visiting the burned-out structure at the end of a lane off Kainalu last week, Tom and his wife, Linda, said even though Hawai'i residents are known for their generosity in times of need, they never expected the outpouring of support from neighbors, friends and strangers. Nearly 300 people helped out during or after the fire, donating food and goods and raising money to help defray the cost of starting over.

The worst of the damage, estimated at $260,000, came in the part of the house where the children slept, but no one was at home except Tom's mother, who lived in a separate, newer part of the house that withstood the flames.

It was there that Linda Tom found an undamaged photograph of her daughter. Elsewhere, the home was blackened and fallen in on one side.

Holes in a wooden fence outside the carcass of the house showed where neighbors had broken through to help in the rescue.

The house has since been demolished to make way for a new house. Every memento — ashes now — was bulldozed away.

It was shortly before 10:30 p.m. when an electrical short in the daughter's room sparked a fire that spread quickly through the older section of the home, Tom said.

Some 60 to 70 people came from blocks away to help before the arrival of firefighters and the Red Cross, Tom said.

Uncle Guy — officially Gaius Yamada — came from two doors down, looking for the fire. When he reached the house next door to check on neighbor Mrs. Bento, he realized the fire was massive and the heat intense.

He pulled his water hose through her yard to try to fight the fire. He quickly realized it wasn't going to help, and turned the hose on the Bentos' home.

"All I wanted to do was prevent the flames from jumping on her house," Yamada said last week.

J.D. Aweau, 23, a friend of the Toms, said he was concerned for anyone in the home and also approached from Bento's yard. He heard explosions and the dog whining, and thought the pet wouldn't make it.

"But I knew if my wife found out there was a dog and I didn't help the dog, I would be in big trouble," Aweau said.

He jumped the fence but couldn't catch the dog right away, he said. With the heat intensifying and ashes dropping on his neck, he finally was able to grab the animal and toss it over the fence.

Then Aweau, too, turned his hose on the neighbor's house, even though they knew it wouldn't be much help.

"The house on the other side didn't get burned, but we felt kinda hopeless," Aweau said.

But they didn't stop, he said.

Meanwhile, other people at the scene were looking for the five residents, said Lilyan Tom, the only one at home. Her grandson was at college in Oregon, his parents were there to watch him play football, and her granddaughter was at a birthday party, she said.

"It was traumatic, and now I understand why 80-year-olds have a hard time," Lilyan said. "You can really panic. I didn't realize I was yelling that I want to get my keys to save my car."

As firefighters fought the blaze, Margo Pelekai consoled Tom's daughter, Nicole, who returned home to ashes and the charred remains of two automobiles. A third, brand-new Toyota truck sustained heat damage.

Later, a group tracked down the family dog, a Brittany spaniel, and confined him to a neighbor's yard because he was chasing firefighters. When Tom took the dog to be groomed at The Dog Shop after the fire, Auntie Mona wouldn't accept payment.

People offered his mother a chair on the night of the fire, helped her call relatives, and gave them money and assurance of help if needed, Tom said.

Lilyan said she was especially grateful to three Red Cross nurses who brought coffee and gave her food vouchers. Everyone was solicitous and asking if she needed help, Lilyan said.

"I got all kinds of names, but none of them can I really identify," she said.

Friends who didn't live nearby but somehow heard about the fire were there, too, making sure the two had a place to stay, Lilyan Tom said.

Nicole, a junior at Kamehameha, said when she got a call that her home was on fire, she thought it was a prank. But when she turned down Kainalu Drive, she could see fire trucks and flashing lights.

Fear and helplessness overcame her, but she was relieved to learn that her grandmother was safe. Seeing the ruined structure made her realize that all her memories, photographs and high-school yearbooks were gone.

But in retrospect she realized something she hadn't really known.

"We live on a lane, and we don't get to interact with the rest of the neighbors," she said. But "they all came. We don't even talk to them that much, and I was thinking, they like us."

Nicole said a friend gave her a uniform to wear to school, and classmates started a fund-raiser to buy her a new canoe paddle. The school board offered free bids for her junior prom, she said, adding that she was overwhelmed by everyone's concern.

Employees of the Hawaii Air National Guard, where Tom works, and the state judiciary, where Linda works, took up collections. They have received money, a surfboard and golf clubs, he said.

At the judiciary, nearly 100 people responded, said Jean Yamane, deputy chief court administrator. No tally was made of the amount collected. The judiciary 'ohana just wanted people to know that one of their own had suffered a tragedy, and whatever they gave was fine.

"It was purely from the heart," she said, adding that everyone cried at the presentation.

More than 100 people from the National Guard contributed money to the Tom family, said Maj. Taison Tanaka. Tom is well known in the Guard, active in its sports and helpful when others are in need, Tanaka said.

"I was sure everybody would come to his aid," he said. "I expected that, for the type of individual he is and how supportive he is to everybody in the Guard."

Tom has gone from house to house to thank people for helping his family, but he has one more person to track down.

"We were trying to track down Kimo, who lives on Kalama Street," Tom said. "He ran here and was one of the first guys to get my mom out of the house."

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.