Mariana Howard and her family stared at the charred remains of a cellphone, bits of paper and a few other things she could salvage from her Pearl City home, heavily damaged by fire Saturday morning.
“All their clothes, everything is gone,” she said of her family members. “I was sleeping. Good thing we’re safe. Everything we lose — birth certificates, everything.”
A two-alarm fire swept through the wood-and-hollow-tile house at 786 Puu Kala St. near the Pearl City Shopping Center, causing an estimated $130,000 in damage.
Honolulu Fire Department Capt. David Jenkins said nine fire companies with 31 personnel responded to the 9:09 a.m. fire. The first unit arrived at 9:13 a.m. and found smoke and flames emanating from the front doors and windows of the structure.
They brought the fire under control by 9:34 a.m. and fully extinguished it at
9:53 a.m.
The fire originated in a bedroom but the cause remains under investigation, Jenkins said.
Howard, her husband and three children, ages 12, 9 and 6, shared the three-bedroom house with a related family of four. There was little if any damage to a second main house, where other family members live.
The owner of the property lives there with his three children and grandchildren, a relative said. In all, 34 members of the three-generation family were home at the time of the fire, and escaped without injury.
Howard and the dozens of family members sought refuge on the grounds of nearby Joy of Christ Lutheran Church, where there was an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting underway.
April Smith, the church’s maintenance manager, said, “We saw smoke starting to come from the house. Two AA members went to help. As soon as we saw everyone congregating on the front lawn, I said, ‘We need to open up the front doors.’”
The church’s motto, inscribed on its sign, is “The Welcome Place,” and that proved spot-on Saturday.
Smith said she normally doesn’t work on Saturday, but was glad she was there that morning; she opened the restrooms and handed out water and juice to the family.
Red Cross volunteers said they were assisting 34 people — and of that nine family members were in critical need — by providing guidance and referrals to find housing, clothing and food.
But the church came through with immediate assistance, Red Cross volunteer Ray Moody said.
“They opened their doors,” Moody said. “They’re providing exactly the kind of help they needed.”
The church, with a congregation of 15, is accepting donations for the victims by mail at 784 Kamehameha Highway, Pearl City HI 96782. Checks should be payable to Joy of Christ Lutheran Church, with Fire Support written in the memo line.
Other donations may be dropped off between 9 a.m. and noon.
