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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Police believe Kukui Tower fire was arson; suspect arrested, 6 injured


By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Residents who evacuated the Kukui Tower building due to an early-morning fire in a unit on the 26th floor wait for the all clear in the Hosoi Garden Mortuary parking lot across the street.

RICHARD AMBO | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Paramedics treat residents affected by an early-morning fire at Kukui Tower.

RICHARD AMBO | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Hundreds of residents had to evacuate Kukui Tower because of a fire in a unit on the 26th floor wait. They waited in the Hosoi Garden Mortuary parking lot across the street.

RICHARD AMBO | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

People evacuating from the Kukui Tower early this morning when the fire started.

SHAUNA GOYA | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Six people were injured, none seriously, during an early-morning apartment fire at the Kukui Tower high-rise building in downtown Honolulu.
Police believe the fire was deliberately set and arrested a 37-year-old man at 6:45 a.m. on suspicion of attempted murder. Additional details on the suspect and his arrest were not immediately available.
Police at the scene were told the suspect poured gasoline on the apartment floor and ignited it.

Fire Capt. Terry Seelig said the blaze was reported at 5:20 a.m. in the building at the corner of North Kukui Street and Nuuanu Avenue.
“The first company found smoke and the sprinkler system activated on the 26th floor,” Seelig said.

Seelig said firefighters had to force their way into the burning apartment.
He said four people who were inside the apartment were taken to Straub Clinic and Hospital.
Bryan Cheplic, spokesman for the city Emergency Services Department, said city paramedics treated six people at the scene for smoke inhalation. One of the six was also treated for minor burns.
Four of the six were taken to a local area hospital for further evaluation and/or treatment and two others were released at the scene, Cheplic said.
Seelig said the fire was confined to the unit that burned, identified by police as apartment number 2609 on the makai side of the 33-story building. But Seelig said other areas of the building likely experienced smoke and water damage.
Police ordered the entire 26th floor sealed off in order to conduct an investigation into the fire's origin.
Residents of the building “self-evacuated when the fire alarm went off,” Seelig said.
Seven fire companies and about 35 firefighters responded to the two-alarm fire, Seelig said.
Three city ambulances were also sent to the scene.
Lam Kim, who lives on the same floor where the fire occurred, was already awake when she heard “yelling and screaming” and “thought it might be homeless people.”
Then she heard the fire alarm.
She opened the door, but the smoke was too thick to go out. She said she called 911 and was told to put a wet towel on her head.
She waited for 15 minutes before a police officer came to her door.
“I just be patient and pray,” she said, standing across the street in her bare feet and wearing a blanket given to her by city paramedics.
She said her apartment floor was covered by ankle deep water.
Red Cross workers were at the scene assisting residents of the 26th floor who were displaced by the fire, Seelig said.
Steven Yanagi, a student at Honolulu Community College, said he heard the fire alarm ringing, and took the elevator down after leaving his 12th-floor apartment with his mother and father in tow.
“It was kind of scary — it could have been an apartment on my floor,” said Yanagi, who said he did not smell smoke.
Janice Lee, who lives on the 23rd floor, said she could smell smoke when she, her husband and her mother-in-law entered the hallway.
“We could also hear someone screaming for help from one of the floors above us,” Lee said.
Lee, a state worker, said she has lived at the building for 10 years, but never experienced a fire during that time. She and other family members climbed down the stairs to leave the building.
She said the building houses primarily working-class families, many of them recent arrivals from China, Korea and other countries.
As residents left the building, they gathered on the opposite side of Kukui Street, some of them still in pajamas.
Many of them worked their cell phones, while families gathered in small clusters, speaking rapidly to each other in Chinese, Korean or Vietnamese.