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15 people displaced by Waipahu duplex fire

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ROSEMARIE BERNARDO / RBERNARDO@STARADVERTISER.COM

About 15 people were displaced after a house fire burned a duplex in Waipahu early this morning.

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ROSEMARIE BERNARDO / RBERNARDO@STARADVERTISER.COM

About 15 people were displaced after a house fire burned a duplex in Waipahu early this morning.

Two men escaped a two-alarm fire that engulfed a duplex in Waipahu early today.

Ten units with 35 firefighters responded to the blaze that broke out at 94-832 Awanei St. at approximately 2 a.m.

When firefighters arrived, they observed the home fully engulfed in flames, said Honolulu Fire Spokesman Capt. Scot Seguirant.

Resident Robert Morano said he was sleeping in the living room of his residence when he woke up and observed flames outside emanating from the unit next door and winds fanning the fire toward his home.

“I told my brother get out of the house. The house is burning,” Morano said as he stood in his neighbor’s carport across from his charred home this morning.”

Firefighters brought the fire under control at 2:58 a.m. and extinguished it just before 3:15 a.m.

Morano said residents of the unit where the fire appeared to break out from were on vacation in the Philippines and scheduled to return to Hawaii today.

Volunteers of the American Red Cross were at the scene today assisting the Moranos as well as neighbors who were also displaced after their duplex sustained smoke damage.

Altogether, about 15 people were displaced by the fire.

The cause of the fire is under investigation and a damage estimate has yet to be determined.

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