Exploding tanks fly from fire engulfing residence

An inferno in a single-story house imperiled a Wahiawa neighborhood Sunday when medical oxygen tanks stored in the Koele Way home began exploding.

Ho‘opi‘okalani Balaz, who lives down the street, described the scene as horrifying.

He recalled watching "hellish orange and red flames" engulf the house: "They looked freaking scary," he said.

But then the oxygen tank blasts began, and he ran for cover.

One tank flew across the street and landed on a covered-up black Infiniti, damaging its hood and driver’s side headlight, while parts of at least one tank shot a few hundred feet down the street.

Three or four others shot toward the house in the rear. Hugh Erminger, who lives there with his wife, said one tank hit the side of his house, damaging the exterior wood and knocking down a lamp and stereo speaker inside the home.

No neighbors or firefighters were injured by the fire or subsequent explosions.

The two men, a father and son, who live in the house were not home at the time of the fire.

Firefighters were called to the scene on Koele Way between California and Olive avenues at 9:45 a.m.

They arrived four minutes later to find the entire house burning, Hono­lulu fire Capt. Gary Lum said.

Lum said the fire appeared to have started in the garage, and the cause was still being investigated.

He said firefighters initially had to battle the blaze from a safe distance to avoid being hit by the tanks.

"It releases the gas and becomes a projectile," he said.

Neighbors said they heard as many as 12 "ear-shattering" explosions.

Erminger said he and his wife were about to leave for a pet store Sunday morning when they heard a neighbor shouting their names.

"I heard it, opened the door and it was all smoke," he said. "When we came out, all we could see was smoke and flames."

Erminger said he found the back door of the blazing house locked, so he "started banging on their house as far as I could go without getting burned."

He then woke up the man living in a house less than 10 feet from the fire, and the two moved their cars to safety.

"I was going through a war zone going back there," said Erminger, a Vietnam War veteran.

He said he had to go back to get his wife, who was trying to retrieve their cat, Mystique, from under the bed.

Erminger and other neighbors identified the two residents as an older man and his son, and some said a woman, possibly a girlfriend, also lived there.

Neighbors called the older man’s daughter, Michelle Mai­elua, and she arrived at the scene with her husband, Solo­mon.

Solomon Maielua said he didn’t know who the female resident might have been. He also said he’s not sure what the oxygen tanks were being used for, though neighbors said the younger man is on dialysis.

Maielua said his wife had a hard time reaching her father and brother at first because her father left his phone in the home. When she got in touch with her brother, she found out he had taken their dad to the hospital for some checkups.

The scene drew a crowd in the congested, closely knit neighborhood.

Annie Negron, who was moving her belongings Sunday morning into a house across the street, said she saw a pickup truck leave the residence as she was driving away.

Negron said that when she returned about 10 minutes later, neighbors were screaming in the street, and the house was on fire.

"I’m just glad nobody died," she said.

Shannon Bergonia said she was sleeping when the fire broke out two houses away, and she initially ignored it because she thought it was firecrackers going off. Then her uncle banged on her door, trying to get her out.

"We were running outside and then we heard a boom, so he was like, ‘Get back in the house!’ " Bergonia said.

The Red Cross was called to assist the residents, who had not yet returned three hours after the fire started.

Fire Capt. Lum estimated the house to be a total loss, but no dollar figure was given.