Oil Lamp Sparks Haʻikū Home Fire

Structure fire, Maui Now graphic.

A home fire in Haʻikū on Thursday night was deemed accidental.

Maui fire officials say a house cat is believed to have knocked over an oil lamp in the bathroom of a two-story home on Akahai Place.

Fire officials say a woman that was taking a shower emerged to find the lamp on the floor and the area around it on fire.  She attempted to put out the fire with a towel, but left the home after she was unable to extinguish it herself.

A man who was showering upstairs heard the fire alarm and used a garden hose to keep the fire from spreading until firefighters arrived.

The fire was limited to the bathroom area and caused an estimated $1,000 in damage to the structure and its contents.

The woman was transported to the Maui Memorial Medical Center for smoke inhalation.

Both residents declined assistance from the American Red Cross.

The incident was reported at 5:54 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016.

Pāʻia firefighters arrived at 6:07 p.m. and found smoke coming from the first floor of the home.

Crews brought the fire under control at 6:16 p.m. and extinguished it at 6:24 p.m.

Maui Fire Services Chief Edward Taomoto said the incident “serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of having working fire alarms in the home.”

“If the fire alarm had not been working properly, or if there had been no fire alarms installed in the home, the man in the shower would not have been alerted early enough to investigate or escape from the fire,” said FSC Taomoto.

A battalion chief and three fire companies from Pāʻia, Makawao, and Kahului responded to the fire.