Fire engulfs 21st-floor unit at Moiliili condominium

Daniel Kellarney was getting ready to head out to the beach with his wife, Toshi­ko, Saturday morning when he smelled smoke. He looked over the balcony of his 21st-floor apartment at the Rainbow Place condominium in Moiliili but didn’t see anything.

A few minutes later, he checked again and spotted black smoke flowing from his neighbor’s apartment.

He ran out of his unit and banged on his neighbor’s door. When he got no answer Kellarney immediately called 911 and pulled the hallway fire alarm. He then went to tell his other neighbors to get to safety.

Honolulu Fire Department officials said they got the call at 10:02 a.m. and responded with 16 units and 58 personnel to the fire at 2754 Kuilei St. The first unit arrived five minutes later to find the unoccupied apartment on the top floor of the building engulfed in flames, with thick, black smoke pouring out from the lanai.

Firefighters extinguished the flames by 10:58 a.m.

A 83-year-old man who lives with his wife on the sixth floor made it out safely only to collapse while resting at Moiliili Japanese Cemetery across the street. Paramedics performed CPR and the man was taken to a hospital in critical condition, according to an Emergency Medical Services report.

Honolulu Fire Capt. Scot Seguirant said the man was believed to have suffered from a cardiac arrest, not from smoke inhalation or burns.

“That is a concern with people evacuating,” Seguirant said. “If they are in a sedentary lifestyle, not in the best shape, not active, and now they have to exit the building, that could lead to different kinds of emergencies … that is another reason why we like fire sprinklers.”

The condo, which was built in 1976, does not have sprinklers. Seguirant added that the cause of the fire is still under investigation and no damage estimate was available.

Residents and neighbors, some in tears, anxiously watched from across the street as firefighters battled the flames and debris fell from the burning unit.

Kellarney, who’s lived at Rainbow Place for about a decade, said he waited for firefighters to arrive so he could give them a key to the locked stairwell. He then evacuated the building, carrying his artwork in large, black portfolios.

A resident who lives in the apartment right below the one that burned said she heard a “boom” that shook her place.

“Black smoke came out toward the living room, which is the tail end where the majority of the fire was earlier,” Shirley Santos said.

Rainbow Place Board President Angela Keen told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that she was asleep when the fire alarm sounded.

“I was up late and slept in and my dog alerted me,” Keen said. “And I called my husband to see if he was in the living room … and he was working out, so he said, ‘I can smell smoke.’”

Keen noticed debris falling from the 21st floor and grabbed her dog and rushed out of the building.

Cullen and Rachel Arroyo evacuated their ninth-floor apartment at Rainbow Place, and headed to the adjacent Prince Jonah Kuhio Elementary School.

“We’re just praying for the people up there,” Cullen Arroyo said. “I think the alarm went off on time for everybody to get out.”

As residents lingered, waiting to be allowed back into their apartments, some went up to Kellarney to commend him for his quick efforts.

“I’m not a hero, I’m just doing what I thought was right,” he said.

Many mentioned the deadly fire at the Marco Polo condominium in July 2017 that killed four people and caused $100 million in damage. The high-rise is located on Kapiolani Boulevard within eyeshot of Rainbow Place.

Kellarney’s wife, Toshiko, works in a office on the bottom floor of the Marco Polo, which also didn’t have fire sprinklers.

In response to the Marco Polo tragedy, the Honolulu City Council passed Bill 69 in 2018 that requires high-rises without sprinkler systems to install them or undergo a comprehensive fire evaluation and make any improvements deemed necessary. Building owners have three years to conduct an evaluation, and improvements must be completed within three years of the report.

The American Red Cross is offering help to any residents affected by the Rainbow Place fire, including emergency food, shelter and clothing, according to a news release.

Star-Advertiser staffers Ed Lynch, Diane S.W. Lee and Cindy Ellen Russell contributed to this story.