KILAUEA — Six-year-old Makoa Navarro slammed his hands against the screen window struggling to get out. Smoke was billowing in from the door behind him and flames were building in the room to the right. Suddenly, the boy was lifted
KILAUEA — Six-year-old Makoa Navarro slammed his hands against the screen window struggling to get out. Smoke was billowing in from the door behind him and flames were building in the room to the right.
Suddenly, the boy was lifted out of the window by his grandfather, Patrick Navarro, who then rushed back through the garage and out the door to safety.
Makoa ran across the street to a neighbor’s front yard.
The Kilauea home on Titcomb Street, where three people lived, was damaged in a house fire early Thursday. Fire inspectors estimate about $150,000 in damages to the structure.
“There is severe heat and smoke damage throughout the whole house,” said Capt. Daryl Date, head of the KFD Fire Prevention Bureau.
There were no injuries. An investigation continues.
Firefighters from the Hanalei Station were dispatched to the home at 4:58 a.m. and were joined by personnel from the Lihue station, Rescue 3 and the on-duty battalion chief. By 6 a.m., firefighters had extinguished the blaze.
The fire began in one of the bedrooms of the single-story home, said county spokeswoman Sarah Blane.
Patrick’s daughter, Kandice Navarro, who lives in the home, was with her son at another house a few blocks away when she got a phone call close to 5 a.m.
“I didn’t even know if they were alive,” Kandice said. “I just booked it over here. Barefoot and everything.”
Firefighters were already there when she arrived. Neighbors were surrounding the house. Her father was nowhere in sight.
Shouting for her father, Kandice said she ran past everyone to get to the house.
“That’s when I saw my dad come out,” she said. “I tried to run in the house, but no one was in the house. They had already put the fire out.”
Nearly nine years ago in March, the family lost Kandice’s mother, she said.
“I couldn’t bear the thought of losing my nephew and my dad, too,” she said as she looked at a black ceramic urn, which contained her mother’s ashes. “I’m just in shock right now.”
Patrick said he woke up to heat, smoke and the smell of burning. All he heard was the “crackling of the burning.”
“It was all smoke. It was all smoke,” Patrick said. “I couldn’t walk back to the bedroom. I almost passed out. I couldn’t find my way out. When I glanced up, I see the door open. I couldn’t go back in the room and grab Makoa because I couldn’t see nothing. I saw flames. I saw the room on fire.”
Tripping and fumbling, he tried to make it through the house. He said he felt lost because he couldn’t see anything through the thick smoke.
Patrick Navarro said he’s just glad Makoa knew not to go back inside the house. He said Makoa heard him through the window, rushed toward it and that’s when he picked up his grandson.
The American Red Cross is assisting the family, as are some neighbors.
“It wasn’t a complete loss, but it’s not livable according to our standards,” said Padraic Gallagher, Kauai County Red Cross director.
