Fire remains Military families displaced by a fire that destroyed 12 apartments Sunday are balking at a plan to put them into other units at Aliamanu Military Housing because they believe the housing is not safe.
a fear at Aliamanu
Some military families refuse
to move back into the apartmentsBy Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.comFire heavily damaged the three-story complex at 1219 Milo Place at about 4:35 a.m.
Army officials told the families yesterday that they could be back at Aliamanu by Friday, but some are refusing to move in.
Leslie Waggoner said she complained to Army housing officials two months ago that her third-floor unit was not safe.
"The front door is the only way out unless you want to jump out of your third-floor window or balcony."
Waggoner said that would not have been an option Sunday because the balcony was on fire. The family left through the front door.Others complained that their two- and three-bedroom units had no fire extinguishers. They said each unit had only one smoke detector, and many told Army officials that the alarms did not go off.
Waggoner said the units Army officials are offering them were built at the same time as the ones that burned on Sunday and are just as unsafe.
The wooden housing units in Aliamanu were built in 1978 to existing code, said Col. William Puttmann, commander of the U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii.
"If they say we have nothing available on the first floor, then they're going to give me an allowance to live off post," Waggoner said, "because I will not live on the second or third floor of anything."
"We'll try to work with them as best we can," said Verna Akina, Army Housing Division chief. "I can't guarantee that the quarters that I have available now to move in are on the first floor."
Army officials said they will give the families as much time as they need to decide where they would like to live.
Meanwhile, federal fire inspectors and structural engineers plan to go back to the complex this morning to try to determine the cause of the blaze.Engineers believe they can install reinforcements to allow five of the 12 families into the complex to retrieve whatever valuables were not damaged in the fire, an Army spokeswoman said.
Rachel Jefferson said she and her husband moved their family out of military housing at Aliamanu two years ago over safety concerns after a fire at a neighboring unit on Akana Place.
They said they moved back into Aliamanu because of the high rents off base.
They said they plan to move back off base because the quarters offered to them at Fort Shafter are older and even less safe than the ones in Aliamanu.
"They're basically saying, 'All we can give you is what we have.' And if all of their buildings are built in the '70s and none of them have fire extinguishers, why are we going to put ourselves in the same situation all over again?" Jefferson said.
The families otherwise praised the Army for its response to their needs.
The government is paying for rooms at the Plaza Hotel near Honolulu Airport and all of the meals for the nine Army and three Navy families displaced by the fire until they find new permanent housing.
The American Red Cross and the Army Community Service are helping the families.