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The fatal Marco Polo high-rise fire did not begin in the condominium units of the three people who died in the Friday five-alarm blaze, Honolulu fire investigators have determined.
Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. David Jenkins said Monday that the fire originated in Unit 2602 on the mauka side of the building. Units 2613 and 2615, where three residents died in the fire, are on the makai side of the building and “nearby, across the hall” from Unit 2602, Jenkins said.
The cause of the fire and the exact location of where the blaze started within the unit are still under investigation.
According to property records, Dale and Jere Gearhart purchased Unit 2602, a 792-square-foot apartment, in May 2008.
Dale Gearhart declined to comment on the fire when reached by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser by phone Monday morning.
A member of the Gearhart family was believed to be inside the apartment at the time of the fire.
A page on GoFundMe, an online site for collecting donations, was created by Jere Gearhart on Sunday for Laura Gearhart. The page described how Laura escaped the fire by “crawling through thick smoke with only inches of air at the bottom before reaching the stairway to take her to safety 26 floors down.”
”Laura has nothing but the clothes on her back. No shoes, nothing. … Laura has no insurance,” according to the GoFundMe page. As of Monday evening Jere Gearhart had collected $2,150 in donations on the site.
Britt Reller, 54, and his mother, Jean Dilley, 87, two of three victims who died in Friday’s fire, lived in Unit 2613.
Pearl City Community Church pastor Phil Reller said he received a call from Hawaiian Airlines Friday that his younger brother Britt, an in-flight manager for the airline, had phoned to say he would be late for work because of a fire at his building. An airline employee told Phil that they had lost contact with his brother after Britt said he had climbed under a bed to escape the billowing smoke.
Their mother lived with Britt.
The third fire victim, Joann Kuwata, 71, a retired dental assistant, lived in Unit 2615.
The Marco Polo, at 2333 Kapiolani Blvd., was built in 1971, four years before installation of fire-sprinkler systems were mandated in high-rises on Oahu.
In July 2013 the board was told it would cost an estimated $4.5 million to install a sprinkler system throughout the building, The cost for each unit was about $8,000.
Reinold Jones, who lives in Unit 2715, said he was playing video games in the living room of his studio apartment when he saw black smoke billowing through the window.
He grabbed his motorcycle helmet and backpack and immediately left his apartment. Jones, 49, said his nostrils burned as he walked through thick smoke toward the open stairwell. A free diver, Jones said he held his breath in the open stairwell for about two floors.
Jones returned to his unit Saturday morning to retrieve his wallet and phone. “My kitchen was completely burned,” he said, adding that his cabinets were destroyed and his refrigerator melted in the fire.
Jones recalled hearing a woman screaming about 10 seconds before the fire alarm went off: “That screaming is going to haunt me for the rest of my life.”
Correction: >> Phil Reller said he rushed to the Marco Polo after Hawaiian Airlines notified him that his brother, Britt, had phoned to say he would be late for work because of a fire at his building. An airline employee told Phil that they had lost contact with his brother after Britt said he had climbed under a bed to escape the billowing smoke. An earlier version of this story and in Tuesday’s print edition reported that Phil had received the call from his brother, one of the three fatalities of Friday’s fire.
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