"Her father was calling 'Marika, get out, get out,' " recalled next-door neighbor Beatrice Seabury, who was awakened at around 3 a.m. yesterday by the sounds of screaming, crying and a barking dog. She looked out her window to see the house next door engulfed in flames.

"The voices were panicky, calling the daughter's name," said Kenneth Seabury.

The Seaburys rushed outside, grabbed their water hose and tried to douse their own roof and that of the Quirits' garage just a few feet away.

In the pandemonium, Beatrice Seabury thinks neighbors on the other side were doing the same thing, and so was Fuavasa Quirit, as he desperately tried to beat back the flames and reach his daughter.

The Fire Department is investigating a fire at 45-324 Kulauli St. in Kane'ohe that claimed the life of a 12-year-old girl yesterday.

The two families who occupied the Kane'ohe home had moved in just three months ago. "They're such nice people," one neighbor said. Photos by Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

"Linda had to throw her son out the window to get him out," said Keoki Teixeira, who works with the sisters at area Kaiser clinics.

Although some neighbors complained to Fire Department officials that the response time was too slow, HFD Capt. Emmit Kane said that only by examining call tapes this morning would they know exactly how quickly units had reached the burning home.

"Some of the residents said it took a long time for us to respond," Kane said, "but when you're standing outside a fire, a few minutes can seem like an eternity."

It was the second fatal house fire this year. In March, a mother and her two young daughters died in a Hawai'i Kai blaze that investigators later classified as a suicide and two homicides. The three were overcome by smoke inhalation in the home on Lunalilo Home Road.

House-fire fatalities are uncommon in Hawai'i, Kane said.

"There are rarely more than one or two deaths a year," he said, but "this year is unusual."

Yesterday, investigators were combing through the gutted remains of the frame house in Kane'ohe, concentrating on the back bedroom where Marika slept and where the fire may have started.

"The father indicated he was aroused by the crackling and popping of the fire, and he noticed a glow from the other room that he could see through the master bedroom window," Kane said.

Quirit leaped out of bed and ran into the hallway toward his daughter's room, Kane said, but had to retreat because the heat and smoke were too intense.

Returning to his own room, Quirit awakened his wife and son and they escaped through the kitchen, Kane said. Again he returned and tried to make his way down the hall to his sister-in-law's room where she and her 7-year-old son were asleep. Again the heat was too intense.

"He couldn't get down the hall far enough to their room," said Kane.

Quirit ran outside and banged on their room from there.

"I don't know if he knocked on the window or banged on the wall," Kane said. "But I know they both exited through the window."

Linda Huihui received some burns as she struggled out the window after her son.

Despite repeated heroic efforts, Quirit couldn't reach his daughter's room.

"She never cried out. She never answered their screams," said the child's maternal grandmother, Marilyn Huihui. The family is taking some small comfort in thinking that the child did not suffer, but was overcome by smoke inhalation, Huihui said.

Marika, who often wore her long, wavy hair in braids, had just graduated from sixth grade at Kane'ohe Elementary and had chosen to be home-schooled instead of going to the neighborhood intermediate school.

"She was an awesome kid, smart as hell," Teixeira said.

Huihui said the youngster loved animals, horses especially, and had often talked of wanting to be a veterinarian. But recently, said Huihui, she also spoke of wanting to be "an actress, a dancer and going to law school, too.

" 'Let's take this one step at a time,' " her mother had replied, according to Huihui.

But Marika had enthusiastically signed up for both a music class and a dance class as part of her home-schooling.

"She was just really excited," said her grandmother. "She's such a happy girl. She smiled all the time."

Tall for her age, Marika had teased her mother about recently passing her in height.

Brenda Quirit, her twin sister and their families had moved into the yellow three-bedroom home just three months ago and plunged into cleaning up the yard and doing repairs that the house badly needed. Family was always in evidence, including a passel of children belonging to relatives.

"It's an old house, but it was something they could afford, in an area they wanted to be," Huihui said.

Marika was often outside helping her folks with yard work, said neighbors.

"They had very strong family ties," said Beatrice Seabury. "They worked together and did yard work together. And they were trying to do repairs to make it livable. They cut everything down, cleaned everything up. We even told them 'Gee, I can't believe you did it in such a short time.' "

When much of the work was done, the family threw a house-warming party, and invited neighbors, Seabury said.

"They're such nice people, so welcoming," she said.

Located in a quiet blue-collar neighborhood, the home was a stone's throw from Castle High School where Fuavasa Quirit had graduated in 1983, and not far from everyone's jobs. Both sisters work at Kaiser clinics in the area. Fuavasa Quirit works as the produce manager at the Kailua Safeway store, where his ready smile always greets customers.

"It really hit home over here," said Enola Brinkley, one of his fellow employees at Safeway. "People didn't want to work anymore."

A group of co-workers from Kaiser Permanente moved quickly to establish a fund in Marika's name through American Savings Bank to help the families. Arrangements for the fund were expected to be completed today.

Damage to the home and contents was estimated at $180,000.