DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Fire investigator Terio Bumanglag Jr. looked yesterday at damage caused by a fire in a Pearl City home.
Couple helps
neighbors escape fireA Pearl City family served as
a fire alarm and alerted a couple
to their burning home
A Pearl City couple is lucky their home fire alarm woke up a neighbor yesterday morning.
Shirley Kawamoto, who lives next door on Hoohulu Street to Joyce and Kenneth Tome, heard the alarm go off at 4:11 a.m.
"I could see sparks, like fireworks, and heard a popping sound," she said.
She woke up her husband, Theodore, and sons, Greg, 30, and Ryan, 24, to help arouse their long-time neighbors. She said she ran to Tome's house, banged on the door and yelled "Fire! ... Get out of the house!"
The heat and smoke prevented the couple from escaping out their bedroom door, so they got out through a window, said Honolulu Fire Capt. Emmit Kane. They had minor cuts from broken glass but no other injuries.
"Fortunately, their neighbor alerted them to the fire and they were able to get out safely," Kane said.
Yesterday's fire was the latest in a string of unrelated residential fires over the last two weeks.
Friday night, 12 people were left homeless in two apartments that caught fire at 7:35 p.m. in a four-story building at 94-333 Pupuole St. in Waipahu. A child playing with a candle was determined to be the cause, Kane said.
As a result of the fires, the fire department is urging residents to assess their homes for fire safety, Kane said.
His advice: Keep lighters and matches away from children, check smoke alarms and their batteries and, if you don't have a detector, get one installed according to the manufacturer's recommendations.
Develop an evacuation plan with two means of exit from every room of the house and designate a meeting place so the family will know everyone is out of the house.
"And practice your plan. Make sure everybody knows what the smoke detector sounds like so they know it's a fire and evacuate the home," he said.
Kane said he didn't know where the smoke detector was installed in the Tome's home, but perhaps the couple didn't hear it because their bedroom door was closed, the windows were secured and the air conditioner was going.
"I'm so happy I got up," Kawamoto said, adding that she and her husband checked their smoke alarm yesterday. "Ours is not good. We're going to have it changed by nightfall," she said.
The cause of the Tome's fire is under investigation, but is focused on the kitchen, Kane said. Damage was estimated at $150,000 to the one-story, three-bedroom, two-bath house and $50,000 to the contents.
Friday night, the entire eight-story apartment building at 94-333 Pupuole St. in Waipahu was evacuated when the fire broke out in a first-floor unit, Kane said.
The fire was confined to the bedroom where it began, but smoke affected the unit above it, he said. Eight people lived in one unit and four in the other.
The Fire Department got the call at 7:35 p.m. and the fire was under control at 8:09 p.m., he said. Damage was estimated at $50,000 to the building and $10,000 to the contents.
Emergency medical personnel treated two people at the scene for difficulty breathing and they were released. There were no major injuries, Kane said.
