Posted on: Sunday, November 28, 2004
Woman dies in house fire
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
A 74-year-old woman was killed and her 79-year-old husband was left homeless after an early morning fire in a Waipi'o valley home.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser "They were both active and friendly," said Jeremy Kalaikai, a neighbor two houses down. "It was really tragic."
Battalion Chief Tommy Perkins, a Fire Department spokesman, said fire investigators are sifting through the rubble at 95-149 Wailawa Place, trying to determine what caused the blaze.
The alarm was called in about 3:30 a.m., Perkins said, and firefighters were at the house within three minutes. But the fire burned so fast they were unable to save the home.
"The house is gone, pretty much" Perkins said. "It's a total loss."
Perkins said the man told firefighters his wife had awakened him and told him to leave the house. He did, assuming she was ahead of him.
The man looked for his wife on the street and at a neighbor's house. It was only when he was unable to find her that he realized she hadn't escaped.
Perkins said the man's family came to take him home with them yesterday.
The couple had lived in the home since 1958.
Kalaikai, the neighbor, said he was awakened by his wife, who noticed the flames.
"Then it just blew," he said. "Like fireworks going off."
Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.
Neighbors identified the woman as Elaine Kahiamoe and her husband as William Kahiamoe.
Ricci Naone, above, was among the Honolulu firefighters working yesterday afternoon at a home in Waipi'o Valley that was damaged in an early morning fire. Friends left memorials at the home, below, where William and Elaine Kahiamoe had lived since 1958.
