GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Investigators have not yet determined the cause of a fire that destroyed part of a military housing complex in Aliamanu on Sunday. Army Staff Sgt. Eric Montanez visited his burned-out home yesterday.
Aliamanu fire began
on third floorMilitary families left homeless
by the blaze comfort each other
Twelve families looked for new homes yesterday after a fire destroyed a section of roof on their apartment building on the Aliamanu Military Reservation.
Fire investigators have not yet determined the cause and not yet provided damage estimates for the fire that began about 4 a.m. Sunday, Army spokeswoman Maj. Stacy Bathrick said yesterday.
Engineers were expected to stabilize the wooden building at 1502 Bougainvillea Loop today to ensure the safety of investigators, who could not safely enter the building yesterday, she said.
The fire appeared to have severely damaged the third-floor units, one of which was destroyed and had no roof. Its balcony fell to the second floor unit below.
Of the nine enlisted Army and three Marine families, 22 adults and 10 children were in the building at the time of the fire and were forced to find other housing.
Army Staff Sgt. Eric Montanez said he found a first-floor apartment unit nearby. Montanez, wife Donna and their 18-month-old son were asleep when a neighbor knocked on their door to warn them of the fire that began in her third-floor apartment, then pulled the fire alarm.
"Throughout the whole excitement, she knocked on her neighbor's door, another door, then our door," Montanez said. Her main concern was that people with babies could get out quickly, he said.
The Montanezes had dinner the night before the fire with the woman, her husband, an Army soldier, and their 2-year-old daughter.
Montanez said his wife first awoke to the knocking, ran into their bedroom and shouted, "Get up!"
They grabbed a few things and rushed out with the baby.
"I was just more concerned that everybody got out," Montanez said. "I didn't really care because all those things can be replaced."
He said the residents did not panic during the fire and left the building in an orderly manner.
Montanez said that after the fire, the families have been spending time together while being housed at a hotel. He and his family had Sunday dinner with a neighbor family at a restaurant.
And yesterday morning, they ate breakfast with their friends whose apartment suffered the most damage and was where the fire began, Montanez said.
"We're all trying to stay close together," Montanez said.
"We are being well taken care of not only by the agencies, but individual soldiers' unit commands," he said. The soldier, whose apartment suffered the most damage, received suitcases full of items donated by his command unit, Montanez said.
"My place is not that bad," he said. "I feel for the younger soldiers." But he said the families are coping.
