Neighbors flee apartment fire
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Flames whipped through a 17th-story apartment yesterday afternoon, damaging the unit and leading other residents of Ala Moana Tower to flee their homes.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
The fire in the 18-story building on Kapi'olani Boulevard was reported about 2 p.m. and under control in 16 minutes, said Honolulu Fire Department Capt. Kenison Tejada.
Honolulu firefighters rushed to a 2 p.m. blaze yesterday near the top floor of the Ala Moana Tower, 1617 Kapi'olani Blvd. No one was home in the apartment.
The blaze caused about $140,000 in damage.
No one was home at the time, and no one was injured. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Brian Burbank and Devon Zoller, roommates who just moved from the Mainland to an apartment on the 17th floor, said they were relaxing in their new home when they began to smell smoke and heard a loud crash.
Burbank looked outside and saw his next-door neighbor's lanai on fire. The two men collected their laptops and important papers and fled down the fire escape, pounding on a neighbor's door as they left.
As they left the building, firefighters, who were on the scene a minute after the call went out, were coming in.
The firefighters went door to door on the 16th, 17th and 18th floors, knocking on doors and telling residents they should leave.
Burbank said he'd heard an alarm after the crash, but building residents Mark and Claudette Hughes and Troy Wurtz said there was no fire alarm signal. "Just smoke alarms in some of the apartments," Wurtz said.
The Hughes, who live on the eighth floor, said they
became aware of the fire when they heard fire trucks stop in front of their building and saw residents across the street pointing toward the burning apartment above them.
When they reached the ground, they saw residents on the 17th floor looking out their windows.
"HFD did a really good job containing the fire quickly," Hughes said. "But this is an older building without sprinklers, and it is concerning that the fire alarm didn't work. It could have been really bad."
Tejada said firefighters tested the fire alarm system after the fire and it did work, but it was the type of alarm that needed to be pulled to be activated, and no one had pulled it.
Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com
