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DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Firemen organized their gear last night after putting out a high-rise fire on Liholiho Street.




Fire stirs resident’s instincts


By Leila Fujimori and Rod Antone
lfujimori@starbulletin.com
rantone@starbulletin.com

Aldann Rico was off duty last night, but his firefighting instincts kicked in instantly when fire broke out in his Makiki apartment building.

"When I saw the fire, I thought, 'Oh, I gotta get everybody out,'" he said. "Obviously, it wasn't a small fire."

Rico pulled the building's fire alarm, knocked on doors, then ran to the lobby to unlock the door for arriving firefighters.

His quick action is earning him a recommendation for special commendation, said fire Capt. Richard Soo.

The intense but short-lived Makiki high-rise fire at 1616 Liholiho St. forced the evacuation of the building and brought neighborhood residents out in droves last night.

The blaze was confined mostly to unit 804, a two-bedroom apartment. The occupants, a Marshallese family, were not home at the time, building officials said.

No one was injured. Damage was estimated at $100,000 to the structure and $20,000 to contents. Fire officials plan to return to the scene today to investigate the cause.

Arico, who has been with the Honolulu Fire Department for about 18 months, said he heard glass breaking and saw smoke. He pulled the fire alarm, called 911, then stuck his head out his window.

"I saw flames coming out of the windows and smoke," Rico said. "I knew it was the bedroom windows it was coming out of."

Rico was able to pinpoint the fire to the eighth floor and ran to warn the occupants.

"I pounded on the door to see if anybody was home," Rico said. When no one answered the locked door, he ran downstairs and unlocked the main lobby door to let in firefighters, who had just arrived.

"I knew we had to get everybody out," he said, judging from the flames. "There's a lot of elderly people in the building."

A woman who lives next door to unit 804 said people down the street noticed the fire before she did.

"I was in my living room on the couch reading a newspaper, and I smelled smoke," said Minette Lew, who lives in unit 803.

"I went to my window, and people on the street saw me and started yelling, 'Get out, get out, there's a fire next door.'

"Then I got downstairs, and I was going, 'Oh my God,'" she said.

Fire and rescue crews from Makiki, downtown Honolulu, Kakaako, Pawaa and University battled the two-alarm fire.

Firefighters were forced to break down the unit's door because no one was home. They brought the fire under control by 8:23 p.m.

"Very big flames, shooting out at least 20 feet out of the window," said Liholiho Street resident Fred Chang. "Big like a furnace. Melted all the aluminum, the glass ... very intense heat."

Building officials said the family who rents the unit does not live there full time. Neighbors said the last time they saw the family was several weeks ago.

Fire officials said the building was equipped with an alarm system but not with sprinklers.

A preliminary investigation, according to fire officials, shows that the fire began in a bedroom.



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