Men rescue elderly woman from burning Kailua cottage
Kiki Yuen, a Kailua resident who helped rescue Schmidt from her burning home, talked with her as she sat across the street in a neighbor’s carport Wednesday.
A fire burned down two structures, one of them 96-year-old Violet Schmidt’s home, Wednesday on Kaha Street in Kailua.
A Kaneohe Marine and another man pulled a 96-year-old grandmother from her burning Kailua house Wednesday morning as the blaze progressed rapidly, destroying her cottage and another behind it.
"They had to drag her out," said Linda Holt, a neighbor who lives across from Violet Schmidt, who with her grandson and granddaughter lived in the two cottages at 606 Kaha St. "She was in shock. She just stood there frozen."
Holt, a grandmother herself, watched helplessly, saying she was also shocked and surprised by the fire that quickly consumed the single-wall-construction, 1950s cottages.
Schmidt and her grandchildren escaped without injury, but a 35-year-old firefighter suffered minor injuries.
When the building partially collapsed, it caused flames to flare toward a firefighter, who suffered first- and second-degree burns to his wrist and shoulder through his protective gear, said Honolulu Fire Department spokesman David Jenkins. The firefighter was initially unaware of his injuries, he said.
The firefighter was taken to a hospital in stable condition, an Emergency Services Department spokeswoman said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but both cottages were considered a total loss. The blaze caused an estimated $300,000 in damage to the structures.
Firefighters received the first alarm at 10:27 a.m. The first company arrived six minutes later and brought the blaze under control at 10:45 a.m. It was extinguished at 11:33 a.m. Six companies with 26 personnel responded.
Abraham Porath, a Marine who lives around the corner, was on his way to work at the Kaneohe Marine base Wednesday when he stopped at the house, Holt said.
"He must have seen the flames coming out," Holt said.
Another area resident, Kiki Yuen, and Porath pulled Schmidt from the burning cottage.
After getting Schmidt out safely, "Abraham … reached in his wallet and took out a bill and said, ‘She needs this more than I do,’ left his name and phone number and said, ‘If you need something, just call me,’" Holt said.
Meanwhile, other neighbors grabbed garden hoses and hosed down a next-door neighbor’s house, which sustained heavy blistering to the paint.
