RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Alan Soistman spoke to fire investigators yesterday after he witnessed a fire at a Waikiki apartment.

Waikiki neighbor
wins praise for rescue

His quick action saves a man
from a burning second-story unit
before fire crews arrive

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By Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.com

People are calling Alan Soistman a hero, although he humbly denies the claim.

The 46-year-old Waikiki man rescued a 65-year-old neighbor yesterday from the lanai of his burning second-floor apartment.

Soistman smelled smoke, looked out his balcony at 11:51 a.m. and saw thick smoke coming from a nearby apartment building. He ran down the street to find a heavyset man standing on his lanai with flames coming out the door behind him.

"I yelled 'jump,' but he wouldn't jump," he said. So Soistman scaled a wooden fence and climbed up to the apartment.

"I didn't know he's got a bad leg and couldn't jump," he said. Neighbors say the victim uses a cane or leaned on a shopping cart to walk.

Soistman placed his arm around the man and "shimmied him from his lanai to the next door lanai" and safety.

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Fire investigators examined the balcony of an apartment above the site of a fire for damage yesterday.

Paramedics treated the victim at the scene for cuts from broken glass to his feet, police said.

"All I want to do is cry," Soistman told reporters after the rescue, his eyes welling up with tears. "I sincerely thought the man was going to die."

Soistman, who graduated from bartending school Friday, and recently arrived from Baltimore said, "I'm no hero. I would have done that for my family."

Meanwhile, Brandey Steiner, who lives directly below the burning studio, helped make sure other elderly neighbors got out OK.

"Everybody started helping each other," she said. "There's like an ohana here," Steiner said of the residents of the cluster of apartment buildings on Kaiulani Avenue.

Soistman also grabbed a fire extinguisher and began beating on doors shouting to neighbors, "Get out. Fire!"

The property manager for the 13-unit building said the victim was a heavy smoker and had rented the studio apartment for two years. Neighbors describe the man as a bit of a recluse.

His apartment was totally gutted and the Red Cross is helping the man with temporary housing. Damage is estimated at $110,000. The cause is still under investigation.

Fire Department Capt. Kenison Tejada said firefighters were able to bring the fire under control within six minutes after arriving on scene at 11:55 a.m.