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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Fire damages two Moanalua Valley homes


By William Cole
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

A house on Ala Hoku Place was severely damaged by fire this afternoon.

Tyler Morton, Special to The Advertiser

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MOANALUA VALLEY — A fast-moving fire this afternoon destroyed a house and heavily damaged a house next door, forcing two couples out of the homes that they had lived in for 40 or more years.

No one was injured in either of the homes, but an adolescent in a third home was treated and released at the scene for difficulty breathing.
The fire was reported at 2:43 p.m.
Gordon and Jean Leong’s single-story home at 1389 Ala Hökü Place, where they had lived in since 1966, was destroyed.
The exterior was charred and the carport had collapsed onto the couple’s 2010 Lincoln, which was purchased two weeks ago and had just 220 miles on the odometer.
Several soggy photo albums that firefighters salvaged lay on the curb.
Gordon Leong said he was home alone and had come out to the front of the house when he said he heard crackling sounds.
“Really got loud. Crack! Crack! I saw smoke coming out from the back of my house,” he said. “It was spooky. It went real fast. The house was down in five minutes.”
Flames at one point were licking 20 feet above the roof of the home.
Leong said he wasn’t sure how the fire started.
Honolulu Fire Capt. Terry Seelig estimated the loss of the Leong’s home at $370,000. The house next door at 1385 Ala Hoku Place, which belongs to Lori and Ralph Ah Sam, sustained an estimated $300,000 in damage.