The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office has identified a couple who died Feb. 23 after a fire ravaged their Makiki home as Daniel K. Ching and Patricia Y. Ching, both 76.

The cause of their deaths is pending.

Honolulu firefighters responded to a two-alarm fire at 962-B Spencer St. just before 12:50 p.m. on Feb. 23. When crews arrived, the structure was engulfed in flames.

Firefighters battled the blaze and found Daniel Ching just outside the home under the exterior staircase of the residence and his wife in a bedroom on the ground floor.

Crews extinguished the fire at 1:40 p.m.

The fire department classified the fire as accidental. Fire investigators determined the cause of the fire was an unattended portable cooking burner and the origin of the fire was the exterior porch of a makeshift cooking area.

Family members are grieving over the couple’s death.

“Our family is completely devastated and heartbroken. Living in Singapore for the past 15 years, I barely got the chance to meet them, especially with the (COVID-19) lockdown. But the time I got to spend with them was something I treasured the most,” granddaughter Sara Ching said in a GoFundMe account that she set up to to help go toward funeral expenses and establish an educational program for kupuna on fire safety awareness.

“They were funny, caring, and the most loving people I’ve ever had the fortune of knowing,” said Ching noting her grandparents were high school sweethearts.

Her grandfather shared stories of the time he served in the Vietnam War and her grandmother would boost her granddaughter’s confidence when she felt dispirited.

The GoFundMe account can be found at https://808ne.ws/danielandpatriciaching.