RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Kristi Kubota, left, and Rene Kozai watched as firefighters cleaned up yesterday after a fatal fire at 1184 Iki Place.
1 person dies in East Firefighters arrived one minute after receiving a call of a fire at 1184 Iki Place, but it was still too late to save an unidentified person whose body was found in the home.
Honolulu house blaze
Kalanianaole and H-1 traffic is
backed up for hours due to the fireStar-Bulletin staff
The home, on a lane across the street from Kalani High School in East Honolulu, was fully engulfed and flames were lapping onto a home next door when firefighters arrived at 11:10 a.m., said Capt. Kenison Tejada, the Honolulu Fire Department spokesperson.
He said an elderly woman who lived at the home hasn't been accounted for. The medical examiner will identify the victim, Tejada added.
Traffic was tied up for hours on Kalanianaole Highway and the H-1 freeway as cars were routed around fire trucks parked on the highway. Tejada said Iki Lane was too narrow for all the fire trucks to fit and allow firefighters to battle the flames.
He said traffic was backed up to 7th Avenue on the freeway when he left the site about 1:45 p.m. Traffic on Kalanianaole Highway was confined to one lane until about 4 p.m., when the second lane was opened, Honolulu police reported.
A neighbor in an adjacent lane who asked not to be identified said she smelled something burning just after 11 a.m. She and her daughter went out to check and called 911 when they saw the fire, she said.
Her home was further away from the two burning houses, she said, "but the wind picked up a little bit. That was the scary part. We didn't know how much it would travel.
"While we were calling in, it came on really fast."
Damage is estimated at $240,000 to the home and contents at 1184 Iki Place. The neighboring two-story house at 1174 B Iki Place suffered damage estimated at $70,000 to the structure and $30,000 to the contents.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Tejada said eight units responded to the alarm, with 45 firefighters and the Hazardous Materials Unit from the Kalihi-Uka Fire Station.
He said firefighters were concerned about some chemical odors and called the HazMat Unit to the scene as a precaution to monitor and clear up anything necessary.
