LIHU‘E — Optometrist Dr. Stan Schiller was at work at his Lihu‘e office when he got the frantic call from his wife Sharon Schiller that flames were approaching the couple’s dream home in Po‘ipu on Oct. 21. The smoke and
LIHU‘E — Optometrist Dr. Stan Schiller was at work at his Lihu‘e office when he got the frantic call from his wife Sharon Schiller that flames were approaching the couple’s dream home in Po‘ipu on Oct. 21.
The smoke and flames were so daunting that Sharon Schiller left the home, and Stan Schiller rushed back to try to protect his property.
When he arrived, Bertram Almeida, Krs Pinkerton and a man he knows only as David were fighting the blaze. They helped Schiller connect hoses to allow them to battle the fire all the way around the expansive, 3-year-old home.
“We put the fire out around my house,” Schiller said, noting the blackened remains of his front yard grass showing just how close the blaze came to destroying his dream home.
“Bertram and I put it out,” said Schiller, a kite-surfer who distinctly remembers southeast winds the day of the fire that pushed the pesky blaze right into his front yard across Weliweli Road from the fire’s origin along the Koloa bypass road, Ala Kinoiki.
Sharon Schiller was fearing for her life and property — the smoke and flames moving fast — so she fled the house, Stan Schiller said.
“I would like to express my gratitude to those friends who assisted me as my home was about to be engulfed in flames last Thursday,” Schiller said in a hand-written note he dropped off at The Garden Island.
“Many thanks to Bertram Almeida, Krs Pinkerton and the uncle of Troy Pimental (David). If it wasn’t for the quick action and speedy work of these three men my house would have gone up in flames,” Schiller wrote.
“I would also like to thank the Koloa fire department for extinguishing the flames and hot spots surrounding my home in Koloa.”
