A fire broke out at the Irish Rose Saloon early this morning, damaging a storage room and causing smoke damage to the Waikiki pub.

Three people — the saloon's manager, a bar worker from the nearby bar The Hideaway and Waipuna security guard Princeton Kanae from a nearby condo building — were taken to Straub Medical Center and released after being treated for smoke inhalation.

The three battled the blaze inside the pub, 478 Ena Road, with fire extinguishers until firefighters arrived.

The fire started around 2 a.m. and was out within 10 minutes after the arrival of the fire department.

No patrons were in the pub at the time.

"The guy from the Hideaway was the first one in there and he really kept it from spreading," Kanae said.

"The manager (Patrick Mcgail) said it was just a storage area and that there wasn't anything flammable. When we got back (to the pub) he was told that they found a rag with kerosene on it."

Band had just finished packing up

Porter Miller's band "Elephant" played at the saloon last night. He said he and the band's drummer had just finished packing their equipment when a waitress noticed smoke coming from the wall behind the stage.

"The bar had been closed for about 15 to 20 minutes so there was just two of us from the band, Patrick and a waitress when she yelled that smoke was coming out from the room behind the stage," Miller said.

"By the time we got outside and to the side of the building, it was flaming up pretty bad," he said.

"There was one guy (from the Hideaway) and Patrick in there for a ridiculous amount of time using those chemical extinguishers to fight it until firefighters got here. The security guard from another building brought over some more extinguishers. Patrick and the other guy must have been in there 10 to 15 minutes."

'I'm not going in there'

By Miller's count, Mcgail and the other two men went through eight chemical extinguishers.

Kanae said that inside, the trio thought the fire had been extinguished a few times, "but it kept flaring up."

Miller said he couldn't believe the three men remained inside as long as they did.

"At one point the flames were shooting up and they were going to throw another extinguisher up (to the second floor) to Mcgail, but our drummer climbed up and got it to them," Miller said.

"What went through my mind right away was that 'I'm not going in there.' It was bad."