A three-alarm building fire on Prospect Street destroyed one house and damaged a neighboring home Saturday morning.

Honolulu Fire Department officials said firefighters responded to a 911 call at 10:17 a.m. for a house fire on Prospect Street near San Antonio Avenue in the Punchbowl neighborhood.

Three HFD units with 48 personnel were sent with the first unit arriving at 10:25 a.m. to find a two-story, single-family house “consumed with heavy smoke and flames that were impinging on a neighboring home.”

Richard Oretsky, who moved to Hawaii with his son in November 2022, lives in the house next door.

“My son came to my room and said, ‘We’ve gotta get out of here,’ so I put on my shoes and I walked down,” Oretsky said. “When I came down, fire was on the balcony (fronting the home) and putting flames onto our house, particularly the roof.”

Oretsky said his son was “very handy,” and had done a lot of handiwork on their home that was damaged in Saturday’s blaze.

HFD called for a third alarm, which requires more units and personnel, at about 10:31 a.m. Firefighters had the blaze under control at 10:44 a.m. and extinguished at 11:31 a.m. The affected houses were ventilated of smoke and were unoccupied, HFD said.

Dark smoke from the blaze could be seen from miles away in Honolulu, and police closed Prospect Street at Huali Street as firefighters battled the fire.

Jane Sanidad, who lives two houses down from the destroyed house, evacuated her home after smelling smoke while she was watching TV. When she got up to investigate around 10:30 a.m., she saw the flames and left her home.

She said the destroyed home was rented out, but that the tenants changed often.

HFD investigators will work to determine the fire’s cause and provide damage estimates, officials said.