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Fire kills woman,
66, in Waipio
Attempts to put out the blaze
By Leila Fujimori
with garden hoses before
help arrives fail
Star-BulletinBernard K. Kinney spent Father's Day with his adult son mourning the loss of his 66-year-old wife in a fire early yesterday at their Waipio home.
"She was a beautiful woman -- German-Russian-Japanese," said Kinney about his wife, Yuriko, whom he met in Japan during the postwar occupation. "That's why he's good-looking," Kinney said, pointing to their only child, Bernard Jr.
The family could not salvage much from their rented home except clothing and papers and items stored in the garage. All their photographs, kept in his wife's bedroom, were destroyed.
Despite the tragedy, Kinney bought pies for the neighbors who tried to save his wife.
Brad Cameron said he heard Kinney yelling at about 12:45 a.m. He and others from across the street tried to douse the fire with garden hoses. Kinney said he also tried shooting water down the hall but could reach only halfway.
"Mel (a neighbor) went into the house to get my mom out, but there was too much smoke and the heat was too intense," said Bernard Kinney Jr.
Firefighters arrived at 12:57 a.m. at 94-670 Noheaiki Place; the fire was reported controlled by 1:06 a.m.
They discovered Yuriko Kinney in the rear bedroom, unconscious with no pulse. She was taken to Kapiolani Hospital at Pali Momi and pronounced dead at 1:47 a.m.
Kinney suffered smoke inhalation but refused treatment and left with his son because he said he wanted to be checked into the same hospital as his wife. No one else was injured.
The fire was extinguished at 2:57 a.m. Fire crews estimate damage to the house at $100,000, and $30,000 to its contents. The vinyl siding of a neighbor's house was warped by the fire.
Investigators are still trying to determine the cause.
Kinney had been asleep in the front bedroom and awoke to the sound of a smoke detector. When he opened his bedroom door, "it was like a funnel; the smoke just came shooting down the hallway," he said.
Kinney, who has had triple-bypass surgery and five cases of heart failure, exited the three-bedroom wooden house.
He said he has no idea what caused the fire but thinks his wife might have been in the living room where it started.
"I'm glad Bernard is all right, but sorry about his wife," said David Takami, who has owned the house for about 15 years.
"We should have stayed in Japan," where he and his family had lived for 47 years, Kinney said.
He said he will stay at his son's home until he decides what to do.
