Mom and son among fatalities in high-rise condo blaze

A woman and her adult son were among three people confirmed killed in a five-alarm fire at the Marco Polo high-rise condominium on Kapiolani Boulevard on Friday.

All three deaths occurred on the 26th floor, where the fire was first reported around 2:15 p.m. At least 12 people were injured, four of whom, including one firefighter, were taken in serious condition to a hospital.

The fire damaged or destroyed more than a dozen apartment units on the 26th, 27th and 28th floors.

The Honolulu Fire Department responded to the fire with more than 30 units staffed by at least 100 personnel, according to HFD spokesman Capt. David Jenkins.

An HFD team led by an assistant chief evacuated residents from the “hot zone” directly above and to the sides of the fire, which was concentrated at the Ewa end of the building. To avoid unnecessary congestion and confusion as urgent evacuations and firefighting operations were in progress, residents in units not threatened by the fire were asked to remain in place until HFD personnel came to escort them out.

HFD Chief Manuel Neves said extreme conditions made the stairwell at the Ewa end of the building “untenable,” forcing firefighters to access the involved units from the Diamond Head side of the building.

Neves said the fire was so intense at times that firefighters themselves had to be evacuated two or three times.

While witnesses outside wondered aloud why firefighters weren’t using ladders to reach the fire, Neves explained that internal standpipes were used to pump water into the building, ensuring an ample supply as firefighters attacked the fire from higher levels and worked their way down.

HFD personnel established a base of operations on the 24th floor, from which firefighters were able to access equipment and rotate duties, Neves said.

At certain points during the fire, the building’s elevators were inoperable, prompting firefighters to carry their equipment up the Diamond Head stairwell to reach the fire.

Shayne Enright, spokeswoman for the city Emergency Medical Services, said several ambulances responded to the fire. Paramedics and emergency personnel set up a triage location inside the building and evaluated and treated patients for smoke inhalation.

Pearl City Community Church pastor Phil Reller said police confirmed that two of the victims in the fatal fire are his mother and brother.

Reller said he rushed to the Marco Polo after receiving a call from Hawaiian Airlines Friday that his younger brother Britt, 54, an in-flight manager for the airline, had phoned to say he would be late for work because of a fire at his building. The airline employee told Phil that Britt said smoke was filling the condominium, unit 2613. Britt told the co-worker he had been taking a shower and rushed out but was unable to get to their 87-year-old mother. The airline employee told Phil that they lost contact after Britt said smoke was filling the apartment and he climbed under a bed to escape the billowing smoke.

“He couldn’t reach my mother,” Reller said.

He said police later confirmed that his brother and mother, Melba Jeannine Dilley, were among the fatalities.

The churning flames were visible from miles away, as was the thick black smoke that emanated from the mauka, makai and Diamond Head sides of the building.

Hundreds of displaced residents, concerned family members, residents from neigh­boring buildings and others watched from beyond the secured perimeter as flames traveled from one unit to the next over the course of more than four hours.

Police twice expanded the restricted area as glass, plastic and metal rained down from the burning apartments onto the street below.

A Marco Polo resident who was outside the building told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he could see people in some of the windows of the building. A woman was seen yelling for help from the lanai of a unit just below some of the burned-out units.

Marco Polo resident Navin Tagore said he was teaching an art class when friends began calling him up about a fire burning in the vicinity of his family’s condominium, and he rushed home.

“Yep, it was,” he said.

Some Marco Polo residents, after more than two hours of watching the fire continue to burn, raised questions as to why the Fire Department was taking so long to put out the blaze.

“With all of these firetrucks, I can’t understand why they can’t put it out,” said Marco Polo resident Barbara Hudman, who has lived at the condominium since 1979. “Something is screwed up.”

“It’s been an orderly evacuation,” said security guard Leonard Rosa, who was answering phones from the front lobby of the building, located near Waikiki. Police and firefighters were going door to door, he said.

Fourth-floor resident Aaron Dengler and his wife were helping their elderly neighbor get to an aid station the American Red Cross set up at a nearby park. “It doesn’t help to just stand and watch,” he said.

One resident who declined to give his name said he made it to safety after climbing the stairs from the 29th floor. The man said there was so much smoke, he could hardly see.

A temporary shelter for those displaced was set up at the Ala Wai Recreation Center. An overnight shelter was later opened at ‘Iolani School.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell declared the fire under control just after 6:30 p.m., but Neves said fire crews would go room by room to put out smoldering furniture and search for survivors.

Caldwell, who joined Neves at the scene, praised the orderly fashion with which HFD personnel, police and EMS personnel carried out their duties, and called the firefighters “heroes who did an incredible job with their lives on the line.”

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but both Caldwell and Neves said that if the building had had a sprinkler system — mandatory for high-rises built after 1975 — the fire would have been contained to the original unit and might have been quickly extinguished.

The Marco Polo, a 36-story building next to the Ala Wai Canal and Ala Wai Community Park, was built in 1971 and has 568 residential units. It was built before the city began requiring sprinkler systems.

“Without a doubt, if there were sprinklers the fire would have been contained to the unit or origin, even in the room of origin,” Neves said. “And it would have only used 12 gallons (of water). Each of the hoses we’re using now uses 250 gallons per minute.”

On Jan. 15, 2013, an early-morning, three-alarm fire at the same building caused $1.1 million in damage to two apartments, exterior walls and hallways, but no injuries. Residents of both units, including an infant, escaped.

Friday’s fire was the worst high-rise blaze Hawaii has seen since a six-alarm inferno on April 1, 2000, that destroyed the top floor of the 16-story Interstate Building on King Street. No occupants were injured, but a firefighter and fire captain were taken to the hospital suffering from smoke inhalation, and other firefighters were treated at the scene.

One-third of Honolulu’s firefighters were called to battle that blaze, which started at 8:25 a.m. and was declared under control shortly before noon. More than 100 businesses were affected, most by water damage. The fire caused several million dollars in damage.

Star-Advertiser reporters Gary T. Kubota, Timothy Hurley and Susan Essoyan contributed to this report.