1 killed in early-morning fire at a McCully building

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - One person was killed in an early morning building fire in the McCully area Sunday morning, according to HFD.

Crews responded to a two-story walk-up just after 5 a.m. located along Date Street. Nearly 40 HFD personnel from 10 units arrived to find the structure with heavy flames on the first floor reaching to the second.

Once they established their water supply and started fighting the flames, HFD had the fire under control in about 40 minutes. It was fully extinguished just before 7 a.m.

Neighbors said they were woken up by the sound of an explosion.

“We thought one of our kids broke a window, kicked it with their feet or something,” said Lehi Fanene of Honolulu. “So we ran out before we knew it, we were dealing with a fire.”

Fanene was worried the fire would spread to his home and the other properties.

“I gotta get my kids out, gotta get my wife out, get the neighbors out especially because one of our neighbors is elderly,” said Fanene. “So, we just had to get them all out.”

“We saw our lights go off in the house and the neighbor’s house and yeah it was pretty crazy.”

Marcelo Campos of Honolulu also heard an explosion.

His room is adjacent to the home that was in flames.

“And it was really loud, it kind of instilled fear into me and so I kind of like froze up for a little bit,” said Campos. “And maybe ten seconds later, I see like, orange coming out from my window, because I’m right on the side.”

“Once I saw it, I could feel it and that’s when I was like alright, it’s nothing to mess with.”

During a search of the home, one victim was found and pronounced dead by EMS. He was said to be a man in his 70s, but has not yet been publicly identified.

“You wouldn’t expect the fire to just go up so fast as it did so that was probably one of the scariest things you can say,” said Fanene. “I still feel a little shocked by it, especially knowing that the gentleman passed away in the unit.”

Fire investigators are working to determine the cause and origin of the fire.

This story will be updated.

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