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Cigarette caused
Moiliili fire
Sixteen people are homeless
after a building is charred
After a fire destroyed half their Moiliili apartment building yesterday, 74-year-old Fred Ito said he and his wife, Betty, hope to stay in the apartment where they have lived since they married in 1957.
"This is my home," he said. "I've lived here more than half my lifetime."
Fire investigators said an unattended cigarette caused the fire that burned half of the five-unit, two-story wooden apartment building at 2344 Date St. at 2:54 a.m., leaving 16 people homeless.
A woman was taken to Straub Hospital, where she was treated for respiratory problems, according to an Emergency Medical Services personnel. A family member said she was OK. Everyone else escaped unharmed.
Ito's apartment received smoke and water damage and was without phone service, electricity and running water, but he wanted to sleep there last night.
"It's sleepable but not livable," Ito said, insisting the couple could eat at Zippy's. He did not know whether the owner would repair or tear down the charred wooden structure.
Fire investigators estimated damage to the building at $250,000 and $50,000 to its contents. The fire also destroyed two cars.
Police closed the road for about three hours.
Unlike the Itos' unit, Jan Ii's apartment was destroyed by the fire, which began on the floor below. She, her boyfriend and four children, ages 2, 3, 6 and 11, escaped barefoot with just the clothes on their backs.
"We just came out with whatever we had on," Ii said. "I just told my kids, 'Go.'"
Firefighters told Ii that her neighbor had passed out after drinking, and his lit cigarette burned either a chair or bed, causing the fire.
The Hawaii Red Cross assisted the Iis and other families with food, clothing and shelter. The Iis went shopping for clothes yesterday and stayed at the Pagoda Hotel last night.
The Watkins family siblings -- ages 8, 13, 15, 17 and 20 -- escaped unharmed and were also put up at the hotel. Their parents were vacationing in California.
Toatele Watkins, 17, said his sisters woke him yelling to get out, but he did not know why. "I got out and looked up, and the house was on fire," he said. "My sisters were already crying."
