Area residents fret over fates of units and friends

Between 100 and 150 people gathered at Ala Wai Community Park Friday evening — but it wasn’t to watch the sunset or fireworks. And the mood was anything but celebratory.

Marco Polo residents waited anxiously and hungrily for a chance to get back into their condominium units.

Some evacuated the building while others found their way to the park after work when they were turned away from their building.

At the park, the Red Cross was distributing bottled water and gathering a list of residents who may be in need of shelter for the evening. It was also a place for people to check whether their family or friends were OK.

Guy Grant, who lives in a building nearby, stared anxiously up the partially charred building looking for signs of two friends, including a woman in her 80s who lives on the 29th floor. Barbara Hudman’s son, who lives in California, wasn’t able to reach her on her home telephone after learning about the fire and asked Grant to try to track her down.

“She lives by herself,” said Grant, who checked in on Hudman from to time. Grant said he also was trying to locate another friend, who lives on the 33rd floor, whom he couldn’t reach on his cellphone.

A woman, who asked not to be identified, said she went to the park to find her brother after she was unable to reach him. He was not at the park, but she was able to breathe a sigh of relief when she discovered that he had signed in earlier with the Red Cross.

Rosa Gutierrez, an 11th-floor resident, was at home with her 18-month-old daughter when she heard the fire alarm.

Because the alarm goes off often in the building, she didn’t think much of it at first. But then she checked a phone app that confirmed for her the threat was real. She grabbed her daughter, her purse, some important documents and some diapers and headed for the stairs.

“Everybody was calm, so the exiting went smoothly,” Gutierrez said. “They handled the situation well,” she said of the building management and security.

Eighth-floor resident Michelle Tupou said she was at home napping when her husband woke her up after hearing the fire alarm. At first they thought it was a fire drill, she said.

But then they opened the window, looked up, “saw the smoke and heard people screaming,” she said.

As they and the two children who were home with them made it to the stairs, she observed that “everyone was kind of stressed. There was a slight element of panic.”

At the park, Tupou said she and family members were hoping to get back to their condo, and if not, to their car. Firetrucks were blocking the entrance to the building.

Rodney Uchida, a 21st-floor resident, sat on a park bench reading an espionage novel.

He learned about the fire on the internet shortly after it began but didn’t rush home. His unit is on the Diamond Head side of the building, so he wasn’t too worried that his unit was damaged.