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New Year’s Eve It's New Year's Eve and midnight is less than two hours away.
fire ‘was just
traveling so fast’
A 51-inch-long illegal skyrocket
was responsible for the blaze
that gutted a couple's homeBy Rod Ohira
Star-BulletinInside her four-bedroom Aiea Heights home on the mauka-end corner of Iliee Street, 59-year-old Kikuko "Kay" Nago has finished preparing food for separate New Year's Day family parties in Pearl City and Kuliouou.
With her daughters Elissa and Heidi and 10-year-old grandson Tory attending parties in Pearl City and Mililani, Kay Nago is enjoying the quiet company of her husband.
At about 10:15 p.m., 62-year-old Thomas Harry "Tom" Nago's fate on this night is determined by a telephone call from his grandson.
Minutes later, a 51-inch-long Tartar-brand skyrocket lands on Nago's property and explodes, setting his open lanai on fire. He and his wife escape uninjured with nothing more than the clothes they're wearing.
"Tory called to ask me to bring him fireworks but I told him to come home and finish playing here because we had parties the next day," said Nago, owner of Pearl City Florist Inc."I agreed to pick up my grandson and his mother at 11. If we didn't have to do that, my wife and I would have gone to sleep. And we might have died like the lady in Palolo."
Lillian Herring's Myrtle Street house was set on fire at about the same time as the Nago home.
While investigators only suspect aerial fireworks started the Palolo fire, in the Nago case, they're positive.
"Instead of going straight up, we think the rocket might have ricocheted off something or just didn't have the right trajectory," fire investigator Capt. Glenn Solem said of the rocket recovered from Nago's house.
"These types of pyrotechnic materials are supposed to be handled by licensed individuals. That's why they're illegal. When in the hands of amateurs, something bad will go wrong because they're not properly trained."
Aerials similar to the Tartar skyrocket were selling on the black market for $30 and up, sources said. Someone's mistake caused more than $200,000 damage to the Nago home.
"I wish they would ban aerials," Kay Nago said. "For us, we just have to go on.
"We didn't get hurt and nobody died. For that, we have to be thankful. There's a future for us."
After talking to his grandson, Tom Nago laid down on the living room floor and turned on his "Chi" therapeutic massage machine to treat his back problems.
His wife, meanwhile, went to take a shower in the master bedroom, which is separated from the open lanai by a wooden wall.
"I was in the shower, maybe five minutes, when I heard this loud boom," she said. "But I thought somebody was playing fireworks close to our house so I didn't pay any attention to it."
When she stepped out of the shower, flames were already coming through the bedroom window.
"It was all red, all red; coming like waves," she said. "I yelled "Tom! Tom! fire!'
"There was no time to dry myself off. I just put on a muumuu and ran to the telephone to call 911. The smoke was making me cough."
The last time he heard his wife yell out his name like that was six or seven years ago, when a rainstorm backed up the house's plumbing, causing $30,000 damage, Tom Nago said.
"I ran outside and tried to shoot the fire down with a hose," he said. "But the water pressure was too low."
When Nago realized it was a lost cause, he went over to the washroom and released the family's two dogs.
"I could see my wife gasping for air and I was yelling to her to get out of the house," he said.
The couple said thick black smoke covered the area between the master bedroom and dining room.
"The thing was just traveling so fast," Tom Nago said. "There was so much smoke."
As she was moving away from the fire toward the garage, Kay Nago thought about the car parked there.
"I was afraid it would blow up," she said. "I wanted to get it out but the doors were locked and my keys were back in the bedroom."
By then, neighbors had arrived to help the Nagos.
"Some came with big jacks and we tried to roll the car out but couldn't," Tom Nago said.
At that point, his wife began hoping for a miracle.
"I just kept saying "please stop the fire,'" she said. "The next thing, I heard the cracking. All the windows were being blown out."
The couple estimated "two minutes at the most" passed from when Kay Nago first saw the fire to them being in the driveway.
"I was standing on my property wearing an undershirt and short pants and my wife had on a muumuu with no slippers and shoes," Tom Nago said.
"But we've received a lot of help from the American Red Cross, neighbors and relatives."
Some items lost in the fire cannot be replaced.
The last Chinen family photo taken before Kay Nago's mother, Yoshiko, died six years ago was lost as well as old Nago family photos.
A vase passed down three generations to Kay Nago and her Japanese dolls were also destroyed as was Tom Nago's favorite crystal glass cup from the sailing ship Matsonia.
"It's really senseless and shouldn't have happened," Solem said.
Fire Department spokesman Capt. Richard Soo said the first company on scene arrived at 10:34 p.m., five minutes after the alarm was received.
"It seemed we waited a long time, like 20 minutes," Tom Nago said. "When the firemen came, someone said they were at another call and that's why they were late."
Firefighters reported the initial blaze under control at 10:41 p.m. but remained on scene until 1:10 a.m. They returned at 1:48 a.m. when the fire rekindled.
So far, the new year has literally been a blur for the Nagos, who lost their eyeglasses in the fire and were not able to get new ones until Tuesday.
"We were in a neighbor's garage from midnight (New Year's Day) to 4:30 in the morning filling out papers," Tom Nago said. "There was so much paperwork and it was hard to read, so people helped us."
The Hawaii Chapter of the Red Cross provided hotel rooms for the family and the Nagos checked in at 5 a.m. on New Year's Day.
"Our money, credit cards, driver's license and medication were all lost in the fire," Tom Nago said. "But friends and family were there to help."
Fortunately, Liberty House was open on New Year's Day so the Nagos were able to buy clothing.
"We haven't really had a chance to sit down yet as a family to have dinner and talk," said Tom Nago, who celebrates a birthday tomorrow. "We've been running around buying things we need.
"Troy attends a private school and we need to get him new uniforms. There's just so much to do."
The Nagos are determined to honor their business commitments.
"We cannot lose fact that we have orders to fill," Kay Nago said of the 10 leis they had promised would be in California today and another order for tomorrow.
"We'll do our regular Monday orders to doctors, banks and Channel 2 and Channel 4."
Tom Nago, meanwhile, is looking for a house to rent while his is being repaired. Anyone who has one available can contact him at Pearl City Florist (455-2012).
Firefighters responded to five structure fires
The Honolulu Fire Department responded to five fireworks-related structure fires on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day that caused an estimated $360,500 in damages.Losses from New Year's Eve fires at 98-971 Iliee St. in Aiea Heights and 2624 Myrtle St. in Palolo Valley amounted to $200,000 and $140,000, respectively.
Eighty-one-year-old Lillian Herring died in the Palolo fire.
A New Year's Day fire at Lot 119 on Kaukamana St. in Waianae caused $20,000 in damages.
Over a three-day period ending Tuesday, the Fire Department responded to 85 fireworks-related incidents, mostly brush and rubbish fires.