All was calm on the sunny lawn behind the Florentine villa of Hawaii School for Girls at La Pietra, which held a luncheon Tuesday to honor and thank the first responders who on Jan. 19 rushed to the aid of residents of the surrounding neighborhood.

That morning was filled with screams and gunfire and black smoke when Jerry Hanel, the downstairs tenant at 3015 Hibiscus Drive, allegedly killed his landlord, Lois Cain, beat upstairs tenant Gisela Ricardi King when she tried to rescue Cain, fatally shot Honolulu police officers Tiffany Enriquez and Kaulike Kalama, and then set the house on fire.

On Tuesday, in welcome contrast to the desolate, burned trees and cinders of former homes just a block and a half away, the scene at the school, which lies on the slopes of Diamond Head up Poni Moi Road, resembled a garden party out of “Alice in Wonderland,” with people mingling among hedgerows and trellises on a lush green lawn fit for croquet.

Resembling the heroine of that story with her long, wavy hair, Gisela Ricardi King, her big eyes shining, walked arm-in-arm with her neighbor and friend Jennifer Tema, who came to her rescue that morning, carrying her to safety and applying a tourniquet to her leg with the aid of passer-by Ian Felix.

But despite the three large Band-Aids on her left arm, a hint of hesitance and tenderness in her gait and the immolation of the house where she had lived with her husband and son, King’s smile showed no traces of pain or grief. “I am just happy to be here with all my neighbors who have supported me so much,” King said.

This was definitely part of the purpose in holding the event, said Josh Watson, head of school.

“It’s an expression of support and gratitude, a gesture of neighborliness,” Watson said. “The students wanted to do something, and the staff thought a first step should be to get everyone together really quickly.”

There would be more outreach to follow, Watson said, including fundraising drives and donations of toiletries for displaced residents being organized by the student council.

“It’s important we as a community thank the officers,” said Ava Dodhi, student body president.

Thanks to HPD, when school resumed Jan. 21, “the students knew we were safe here on campus,” she said.

At picnic tables, enjoying a luau lunch co-hosted by Outrigger Canoe Club, the school’s staff, 160 students and some parents, as well as neighborhood residents, mingled with about 35 blue-clad members of the Honolulu Emergency Medical Services, Honolulu Fire Department and Honolulu Police Department.

Ricardi King spoke with and hugged EMS paramedic Kaipo Hayashida, who had tended to her that morning and controlled her bleeding after Tema and Felix carried her to his ambulance, which was the first on the scene.

As he and his co-worker, Adam Kealiher, treated King, HPD brought over the wounded Enriquez, whom he recognized, Hayashida said, a shadow falling over his features. “We went on calls together,” he added, as they had both been stationed in Waikiki.

Another ambulance came, and HPD carried Enriquez over to where the paramedics could treat her, Haya­shida said, and then HPD brought out Kalama, whom a third ambulance team treated.

It was maybe 40 minutes in all, Hayashida said, “but I felt like I was there forever.”

In a corner of the garden, Hayley Cerit, whose house on Hibiscus Drive burned down, spoke with Alan Carvalho, the Fire Department battalion chief who had been on the block that morning.

Carvalho assured Cerit that the shock was real and ongoing but that she would recover. Over his career, “I’ve lost many, over a dozen, and I’m not just talking about the Fire Department,” he said. “It’s a family — EMS, Ocean Safety, HPD — and we will get through this.”

Cerit said she hoped there would be more services provided for the mentally ill: Several neighbors had obtained restraining orders against Hanel, whose mental condition they had seen deteriorate over the years.

Help may be on the way.

On Tuesday state Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R, Kailua-­Kaneohe Bay) introduced legislation to restore the categories of “gravely disabled” and “obviously ill” to the criteria for involuntary hospitalization that were deleted by Act 221, SLH 2013.

The introduced bill, HB 2680, will be heard Feb. 5 at 9 a.m. in Capitol Conference Room 325.

Thielen said in a statement, “The current standards for involuntary hospitalization do not adequately prevent harm, either to persons suffering from mental illness or substance abuse, or to members of the public.”

She added, “The Legislature cannot sit idly by.”

Meanwhile, on Tuesday at La Pietra, the community enjoyed a healing and unifying respite from insurance claims, air quality tests and the search for new residences and the basic necessities of life.

Leilani Freeman had flown in from New Zealand on Tuesday morning to be reunited with her parents, Ellen and Russel Freeman, whose home next to 3015 Hibiscus Drive burned down.

Ellen Freeman is an alumna of Hawaii School for Girls, said Lisa Lee, an alumnae relations officer, and Leilani Freeman, who grew up in the neighborhood, attended the school from 2006 to 2008, graduating from Honolulu Waldorf School in 2013.

Despite all they’d been through, neighborhood residents looked relaxed and happy.

Rather than trauma, “all I have is beautiful memories of the children playing” on Hibiscus Drive, King said.

Soon it was back to class for the students and back to work for the first responders. The police cars and big yellow firetrucks pulled gently out of the driveway, while in the garden neighbors lingered over dessert and were sent home with takeout containers in time-honored local style.

For more information about the hearing on HB 2680, and to provide testimony, you can visit 808ne.ws/2RAmUA3.