Closure still eludes those most devastated by Marco Polo fire

A year after the seven-alarm fire at the Marco Polo apartments, which caused more than $107 million in damage, the wounds are still fresh for the families of the four victims who perished in the inferno and for the survivors who still struggle to rebuild their units and their lives.

The fire, Honolulu’s most infamous blaze since the Chinatown fire of 1900, occurred July 14 at the 2333 Kapiolani Blvd. high-rise next to Ala Wai Community Park. The tower was built in 1971, before the city began requiring sprinkler systems. The blaze was responsible for the deaths of Britt Reller, 54; his mother, 87-year-old Melba Jeannine “Jean” Dilley; and their neighbors Joann M. Kuwata, 71, and Marilyn Van Gieson, who died Aug. 3 at age 81 from fire-related complications.

It took about 130 firefighters more than four hours to put out the fire, which affected about 200 of the building’s 568 units, including 30 that were destroyed, mostly on the 26th through 28th floors. In October investigators ruled the official cause as “undetermined” because of “extensive damage” in unit 2602, where the flames began.

Months later the victims’ families and Marco Polo survivors say they are still struggling to make sense of what happened. Many are settling estates, claiming insurance, addressing litigation, rebuilding their units and paying bills — trying to reassemble their lives.

Phil Reller said he got calls up to twice daily for months from the mortgage company that he said was harassing him to make payments on the unit where his brother and his mother perished even though he wasn’t on the note and the estate has not been settled. Others also report issues over bills, and worries over insurance coverage and security in a building that has yet to fully reopen. Since the fire the Honolulu Police Department has responded to 11 burglaries at the building.

Fighting for change

In trying to move forward, survivors, friends and family of the victims pushed for tougher fire prevention legislation, and their efforts resulted in a city ordinance signed in May requiring fire safety evaluations in buildings 10 stories or more within three years, after which owners must decide whether to install sprinklers or alternative fire prevention measures. It also gives incentives to condo associations for installation of fire sprinklers.

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell and fire officials supported the measure, saying sprinklers would have kept the blaze from quickly spreading. The Association of Apartment Owners of Marco Polo, which had previously rejected sprinklers as too costly, recently voted to use money it holds in reserves to install a system.

Dawn Dunbar, Kuwata’s niece, said she still has difficulty talking about the beloved aunt she lost, and hopes people will look at the deaths as a “mandate to examine how we protect our friends and family in condos from fire and danger.”

Dunbar said the tragedy could have been prevented and that she’s saddened when people complain about the cost of installing sprinklers.

“My aunt and the other victims did not deserve to die, and in a fire, probably one of the worst ways to perish,” Dunbar said. “We know that if there were fire sprinklers at Marco Polo, my aunt would’ve had a chance.”

Dunbar said the “avoidable tragedy emphasizes the importance of the city, the operators of high-rise buildings and the management companies to operate with an awareness of safety and protection of our community.”

To that end the families of the deceased victims are finalizing a 501(c)(3) nonprofit called Community Kokua Foundation for Fire Safety and Recovery. They hope to use the nonprofit to increase fire prevention education and fill the voids that they have identified in helping victims recover.

The Reller family also has put $38,000 in memorial donations toward constructing the Britt Reller and Jean Dilley Memorial ICU at Evangelical Hospital, which serves the rural poor in Khariar, India.

“Britt and I were working on this project before he died,” Phil Reller said. This project is a way of turning this tragedy into something healing and hopeful.”

Emotional toll high

Despite the desire for healing, the families of those who died at the Marco Polo find that the past is never far behind.

”Anytime you lose a loved one, it takes an emotional toll on the family. But I think the way that we lost Auntie Joann is what makes this whole tragedy extremely difficult to accept. I miss her laugh and the sweet person that she was,” Dunbar said.

Reminders of the loss are everywhere for Reller; his wife, Trina Zelle; and their daughter, Caitlin, who say that they’ve encountered moments that defy explanation. Just days after Dilley’s and Britt Reller’s deaths, the family noticed a peculiar pattern with bees.

“We were at the beach, and two bees were hovering around Caitlin, who always called Britt, ‘Uncle Bee,’” said Zelle. “We took it as a sign that they were trying to tell us they were OK.”

A few weeks later the family twice had to call a honeybee relocator to remove some 10,000 bees that had made their home in their backyard. It didn’t escape them that in many religions honeybees are viewed as messengers between this world and the afterlife.

It wasn’t until last month that the Reller family buried Britt Reller’s and Dilley’s ashes in the family plot in Minnesota. On Thursday they joined the other families of the deceased victims in filing a lawsuit alleging that the deaths could have been prevented if the defendants had followed basic safety measures.

The complaint, filed in 1st Circuit Court in Honolulu, is against the Marco Polo’s management companies, including Associa, Associa Hawaii and Touchstone Properties. It also names the Association of Apartment Owners of the Marco Polo Apartments and Ohana Control Systems. The plaintiffs in the case are the estates of the deceased Marco Polo victims and the fire kokua and prevention nonprofit created by their families. If the case is successful, the families plan to use some of the proceeds to support the nonprofit.

So far, the only item that the Reller family has recovered from the fire is a heart-shaped necklace that Dilley usually wore, now in her granddaughter Caitlin’s possession.

“None of the victims had a chance because of Associa’s irresponsibility and the greedy choices that they made,” Phil Reller said.

Britt Reller was working at Bloomingdales and as a Hawaiian Airlines executive when he died. However, his long career in the airline industry began in 1985 and included stints at Northwest, Delta, US Airways and American.

Hawaiian Airlines has dedicated part of a garden at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport to Reller, and all of the other airlines where he worked also have marked his death.

“I’ve learned more about my brother in this last year than I ever knew,” Phil Reller said. “People always share the same story about how he was such a good friend and great colleague and how he helped them.”

Dilley, who was a gospel singer in her youth, is best remembered for her strong faith during a difficult life.

“Christmas wasn’t the same without a great-grandmother there,” Reller said. “Talking about my mother is hard. I keep going back to this 87-year-old woman trapped in a fire — the confusion and horror that must have been present during her last hour on this earth. It’s just not fair.”

Dunham said she’s also struggling to find closure.

“There have been numerous rumors about the cause of the fire, and the building was pretty much a deathtrap, and yet we were told that the police and fire reports closed their cases and the cause was undetermined,” she said.

A fire investigations report released in October provides insight into why the memory of the fire is still so fresh for many.

Included is an interview with Keiko Izawa, a resident in unit 2614 who was quickly forced by black smoke onto her lanai. Izawa told investigators that she called 911 but did not get through. She was eventually rescued.

Joann Kuwata, 71, died inside unit 2615, where firefighters found her on a shelf up against the unit’s south-facing window.

Kuwata had lived alone for the last 20 years in her Marco Polo rental, and was described by family and friends as a “sweet” and “caring” person. A Roosevelt High School graduate, she left home for Northern California in her 20s and took a job as a secretary for Standard Oil Co. She returned home after a few years and, up until her retirement about six years ago, worked as an assistant for a Kahala dentist.

Izawa told an investigator that she had briefly seen Kuwata from her vantage point on the lanai and was afraid that she “was going to fall out of the window.” Izawa reported that Kuwata had a towel over her head and that her arms were covered in soot but that when asked if she was OK, she said, “Yes.”

Izawa also reported hearing Britt Reller yelling out the bedroom window of unit 2613 for his mother and his dog. Shortly after, she said, she saw flames coming from his lanai and middle bedroom, followed by curtain rods and screen doors falling. She described hearing an explosion and then the yelling stopped.

Firefighters later found Reller’s body in his southwest bedroom between the exterior wall and the bed. They discovered the body of his mother, Jean Dilley, in the living room near the exit hallway and kitchen.

Marilyn Van Gieson, whose son Michael Van Gieson did not return a call from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, didn’t die right away. Phil Reller, who coincidentally was her pastor at Harris United Methodist Church, said he remembers seeing firefighters wheel Van Gieson out of the building as he waited for word on his own family.

“She was in terrible agony. No one should have had to go through what they did,” he said.

Van Gieson, a recent retiree of the state library system, already had compromised breathing from lung cancer and had pneumonia.

Her neighbor Ann Wright told the Star-Advertiser in an earlier interview that Van Gieson sat in a kitchen chair near the front door until firefighters arrived four hours later to remove her from the building where she had lived for 44 years.

Ironically, Van Gieson’s last Facebook post, dated May 30, 2017, was Psalm 121, otherwise known as a prayer for travelers. According to the devout Methodist’s post, the psalm was meant to serve as a “guide for the journey and a reminder God is watching over us every step of the way.”