DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM Neighbor Naty Domingo comforted Mike Sales yesterday as he surveyed what was left of his home at 1511 Adelaide St. in Kalihi. A blaze destroyed the house Wednesday, killing one woman and leaving five families homeless. Sales rushed into the burning house and saved two of his family members.

Kalihi man to be
honored for heroism

Mike Sales rushed into a burning
house to save family members

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By Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.com

The Honolulu Fire Department will award a commendation to a man who rushed inside a burning house Wednesday to save family members in Kalihi.

Fire officials said Mike Sales ran upstairs into his family's duplex at 1511 Adelaide St. while the second floor was filled with smoke and about to go up in flames.

"During the fire's early stages, he gained access to ensure the elderly made it downstairs," said HFD spokesman Capt. Richard Soo. "If it wasn't for his efforts, the fatality count would have been greater."

DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM Balloons and flowers mark the spot where Pia Oasay, 84, lost her life during a fire Wednesday that destroyed her Adelaide Street home.

Sales managed to save his 86-year-old father-in-law and owner of the home, Pascual Oasay. Firefighters recovered the body of Pia Oasay, 84, in one of the bedrooms on the second floor.

Though officials from the Honolulu Medical Examiner's Office said they cannot confirm the identity or even the sex of the body found because of the extent of the injuries, family members said the victim was Pia Oasay, who had trouble walking and lived on the second floor with her sister, Lourdes Pascua.

Yesterday, several Oasay family members returned to what was left of their home for a prayer service and to lay flowers and balloons on the second floor where the body was found. Among them was Pascual Oasay, who had been hospitalized for smoke inhalation on the day of the fire.

The fire left five families homeless. According to American Red Cross officials, the Adelaide Street duplex was home to 26 people, including eight children under the age of 12 and six senior residents.

Though several Oasay family members managed to find shelter on their own, the Red Cross is helping to house 20 other victims. Red Cross officials said this was the most people that volunteers have had to help after fire destroyed a single dwelling.

Fire officials also said Wednesday's fire has been the most costly one so far this year, causing an estimated $480,000 in property damage. It took about 50 firefighters an hour and a half to bring the fire under control.

Though fire investigators have traced the origin of the blaze to the duplex's second-floor kitchen, they have still not determined what exactly caused the fire.