Ken Sakamoto / Star-Bulletin
Tony Cajimat holds daughter Jennifer, 7, yesterday
and looks at what used to be the main living area
and the bottom floor of their house.

Family loses
‘everything’ in fire;
arson suspected

A relative allegedly
had threatened to
burn the house down

By Nelson Daranciang
Star-Bulletin

Emilia Cainglit had put everything into the Kalihi Valley home she and her late husband, Frank, bought over 30 years ago.

Yesterday, she was called back from work to find that fire had reduced her home to an empty shell.

"Everything -- my clothes, jewelry, dishes, my niece's television, computers -- all gone," she said.

Also lost in the fire were a year's worth of cash donations she had set aside for her church, and care packages Cainglit was getting ready to send to relatives in the Philippines.

The blaze started in the open basement of the two-story home at 1739-B Kamohoalii St. shortly before 5 a.m., causing $250,000 damage, said Glenn Solem, Honolulu Fire Department investigator.

Six adults and three children were in the home at the time. All escaped injury with just the clothes on their backs.

Solem has yet to determine the cause of the blaze. However, Honolulu police have arrested Cainglit's nephew, 40, for allegedly starting the fire.

Police have yet to charge the nephew but continue to keep him in custody on an outstanding warrant.

Other residents said they had heard him say he was going to burn the house down.

"I didn't think he had the guts," said Tony Cajimat, 33, who had lived at the home with his wife, three kids and four adult in-laws including Cainglit.

Cainglit told police she had kicked her nephew out of the house. But Cajimat said his brother-in-law kept sneaking back in.

Her insurance agent told her that her policy would not cover the damage if fire and police investigators determine that someone in the household intentionally set the fire.

"If that happens I'm unhappy, because I worked hard for that house," she said. Her husband worked two jobs to pay off the mortgage in seven years.

Cainglit said that after he died, she continued to work to pay the insurance, property taxes, repair and other bills.

Next month, she will have completed 36 years of working for Dole Food Co. in Wahiawa.

The American Red Cross is renting hotel rooms for Canglit and the relatives who lived with her. But that is only for a few more days.

After that they are not sure what they are going to do.