Two boulders dislodged during heavy rain tumbled about 20 feet down a Kalihi Valley hillside early Monday morning, damaging a home and narrowly missing four people sleeping inside.

Firefighters and other emergency personnel responded to a call from the home’s occupants around 8:30 a.m., a few hours after the boulders hit the house at 1551 Nobrega St. No injuries were reported.

The boulders — measuring 3 by 5 feet and 3 by 3 feet — hit the back of the house, damaging a small portion of a bedroom wall.

Peter Hirai, deputy director of the city Department of Emergency Management, said it’s possible the boulders came from a single boulder that broke into pieces. A third, smaller piece of rock fell a few yards away from the larger two and did not damage the home.

About 11 miles to the east, a rockslide occurred above 6492 Hawaii Kai Drive on Monday morning but did not result in any injuries or property damage, Hirai said. A small grove of bamboo trees apparently stopped the four or five boulders, the largest measuring 5 by 4 feet.

At the Kalihi Valley house, Gerald Abella, 33, said he and his family were awakened at about 4:45 a.m. by "what sounded like a car or motorcycle coming through, it was so loud."

Abella; wife Jennifer, 26; son Bryant, 2; and an adult relative were sleeping in a bedroom that is along the slope from which the boulders fell.

The biggest boulder hit the wall just a few inches from Abella’s head, splintering the wood and leaving dust and other small debris on his head and face. His wife and son were next to him in the bed, he said.

"At 4, 5 in the morning, you’re dead sleeping and it was super dark, so you don’t know what’s happening," Abella said. "But we heard a crash, and my first reaction was to check on my son, just make sure everyone was all right."

He added, "After the shock of it went away, I thought, ‘Don’t tell me it’s a boulder.’ I moved everyone to the living room, then went out back to check."

Hirai said an Emergency Management official surveyed the cliff face behind the house and found no immediate concern of more rocks falling. But Hirai said the department advised the Abellas that "if there’s more rain, there’s always a possibility for more rocks to come down."

Hirai said he wasn’t sure who owns the land the boulders fell from, saying a surveyor could make that determination.

The land either belongs to the Abellas or Stephen Chun of Arcadia, Calif., who owns a house a few blocks away on a 3-acre parcel that includes a section of hillside above several homes, city records show.

Abigail Corpuz, 21, Abella’s sister-in-law, who was also sleeping in the bedroom, said, "It could happen again so it’s a little bit scary."

Gerald Abella said that for now the family will sleep in the living room, on the side of the house farthest from the mountainside. He also said he plans to rearrange the furniture in the damaged bedroom so the bed isn’t right against the wall nearest the hillside.

The Abella family has owned the home for more than 30 years, but rocks and boulders have started falling down only within the last five years, said Abella’s mother, Ligaya Abella, 65, who also lives in the home.

Gerald Abella said four or five years ago a smaller boulder fell from the same part of the mountainside as Monday’s boulders but did not reach the house, so the family didn’t report the incident or have the boulder removed.

He added that when his son was born, he was concerned that another boulder could fall and hurt his family but wasn’t sure what he could do about it.

"If there’s any way the state or someone can help to prevent boulders from coming down and hurting families, it would make a big difference," he said.

Danette Cabbab, 40, who lives in the house just below the Abellas with her family of five, said she didn’t hear the boulder hit her neighbor’s house, but added, "When you live beside any mountainside, it (falling rocks) is something to worry about."

Ligaya Abella said she’s concerned more rocks will fall but is happy her family is all right. "Lucky thing it didn’t hit the windows or make the jalousies fall. If it had, someone might have gotten seriously hurt (from) the glass," she said. "The main thing is that nobody was hurt."