Fire caused substantial damage tonight to the Punchbowl-area home of a retired firefighter who for four years was the public face of the Honolulu Fire Department.

No one was injured in the 7:29 p.m. blaze that burned the kitchen and living room of former HFD spokesman Richard Soo’s three-story Kapahu Street duplex.

Soo was not home at the time, and his two sons and a friend who live there got out unharmed.

Soo said his son Davit, 22, told him he had left a pot heating on the stove, and that his son was apologetic and distraught.