Source of fire that killed man in Waianae unknown
Due to extensive fire damage to the Waianae home that took the life of a 55-year-old bed-ridden man, fire investigators were unable to gain enough information to determine where or how the fire began.
Fire investigators, after conferring with the Honolulu Police Department, closed yesterday the case of the fire at 86-464 Halona Road, where Mario Eder died. However, fire officials said the case could be reopened if new information emerged.
Fire investigators classified the cause of the fire as "undetermined," meaning all possible causes of the fire were analyzed but there was insufficient information to determine a probable cause.
The fire occurred at 1:56 p.m. Friday. First-arriving firefighters found the two-story structure engulfed in flames and were told that there was a man trapped on the first floor.
Firefighters entered the burning structure with hoses in an attempt to find and rescue Eder but were forced to pull out when the structure began to collapse.
Ten people lived in the home. One family lived upstairs and another downstairs, but the families were related.
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Eder’s body was found on the first floor.
This is the third residential fire fatality on Oahu this year.
On March 2, 89-year-old Lillian Sato died when her Hoolaulea Street home in Pearl City burned. On May 5, 69-year-old Ron Cravens was killed while smoking in his bed in his sixth-floor studio unit at the Honuakaha Housing Complex on Queen Street.