Man escapes
house collapse

A 50-year-old Palolo man narrowly escaped being crushed by his termite-eaten house, which collapsed yesterday morning.

"I didn't think I would make it," said Glenn Hashimoto, a Pearl Harbor industrial equipment mechanic.

Hashimoto was underneath, jacking up the house with a hydraulic bottle jack to level it, when he heard an ominous creaking sound. "I decided to make a dash for it," Hashimoto said. "I actually dove for the stairs. I kind of like dove to make sure I cleared the dwelling.

"Good thing," he said. "I was fortunate to escape from serious injury."

When he made the dive, Hashimoto gashed his head on a stone wall, which required several medical staples and a bandage.

"It was a wild experience," he said.

But when paramedics took his pulse, it was normal.

"I guess I kept my calmness when I escaped this whole matter," he said.

The collapse of the dilapidated white house, built against the hillside at 2306 Jasmine St., left gaping holes in the front and the roof between 10:30 and 11 a.m. yesterday.

Next-door neighbor Jim Hamachek was on the phone at the time.

"I heard this huge crash," he said. "I thought it was my house."

Hamachek said there had been a gaping hole on the side of Hashimoto's house. "I'm surprised it hadn't fallen down sooner," he said.

Hashimoto is not sure how old the house is, since his parents were the home's second owners.

After his father moved into a care home and his mother died, Hashimoto bought out his two sisters, becoming the sole owner about five years ago.

Ever since, he has been spending his vacations making temporary repairs to the old house he has lived in since he was a kindergartner.

"I was trying to level it, but I guess it was the wrong thing to do," Hashimoto said. "My friend told me I was crazy."

Yesterday's incident is speeding up Hashimoto's plans. He will have it demolished and plans to build a three-story house -- two stories atop a garage -- that will last his lifetime.

For now, Hashimoto said, he will sleep either in his truck or a storage enclosure on the property.