The Marco Polo condominium owners association, under court order, opened the doors of the McCully high-rise Monday to numerous potential claimants and potential defendants such as product manufacturers, their insurers and fire experts from across the nation, to begin looking at the evidence of the largest building fire in Honolulu history.

In order to preserve the evidence, “we have kept floors 26 and 27 locked down,” including the unit where the fire originated, since the Honolulu Fire Department released the fire scene to the association, said AOAO Marco Polo attorney David Louie, a former attorney general now with the law firm Kobayashi, Sugita &Goda.

The association is under court order to allow the joint scene-examination of the building where a massive fire July 14 killed four people and caused more than $100 million in damage.

One unit owner, unrelated to a fire victim, filed a lawsuit. Stemming from that, the association agreed to a preliminary injunction regarding the examination.

“It’s in the one lawsuit, but it has wider implications for other claims that might arise,” said Louie, who anticipates the examination will be completed within about two weeks.

“Once completed, the repairs will likely begin,” he said. “People need to get their lives back together.”

The Fire Department released the scene at the Marco Polo about two weeks after the fire, completed its entire investigation and report Sept. 29, then took the next two weeks to review and process that report (redacting personal information) and released it publicly Oct. 16, HFD spokesman Capt. David Jenkins said.

The Fire Department could not determine the cause of the fire, and has closed its investigation.

However, Jenkins said that any new information from other investigations could spark a continuation of the department’s investigation. HFD does not have the resources, including a laboratory, for forensic analysis, but recommended certified laboratories to do so.

“We anticipate them sharing,” he said. “The case can be reopened if there is introduction of new information.”

Some of the investigators have been on scene since the beginning, Jenkins said.

Louie said the association invited all manufacturers of products identified in the HFD report that might face claims, including such products as a laptop battery, cellphone charger and other items in unit 2602, where the fire originated.

AOAO Marco Polo also held an informational meeting attended by roughly 60 people Monday morning to discuss the process by which experts were going to view the 26th floor, where the fire originated, and other areas damaged by the fire, said Woody Soldner, a lawyer for two of the fire victims who lived on the 26th floor: residents Britt Reller, 54, and his 85-year-old mother, Jean Dilley.

Lay people were not allowed on floors 26 and 27 because of the hazardous materials, including asbestos, but could watch the live feed on monitors as experts entered the different units.

Those entering suited up with protective gear, including double Tyvek suits, respirators and goggles, and were allowed in in shifts to look at the scene and sift through the evidence, Louie said.

Lawyer Bill McCorriston, whose son is a resident of a condo he bought for him, attended the meeting.

Although his son’s unit is on the sixth floor and not one of the fire floors, he said, “They’re all affected.”

There’s been no communication about doing repairs, he said. “They keep telling us, ‘Next week. Next week.’ We just want to get back to life.”

He added, “Who knows what this is going to do to the values?”

Rosita Briones, 66, a certified nurse’s assistant who shares in caring for an bedridden 89-year-old woman who lived in and owns a two-bedroom 28th-floor unit, which was damaged, also went to the meeting.

Briones, who was on a three-week trip at the time of the fire, said, “I was really scared because … I was concerned about the old woman.”

The woman was moved to a studio on the 23rd floor, along with her caregivers. The studio’s bathroom is not equipped to accommodate her, and her caregivers have had to sleep on the floor. “We can’t put her in the shower,” Briones said.

She said that the building management complained about them not closing the front door but never gave them an explanation.

“We don’t know why,” Briones said. “We are just wondering why we have to close the door. We feel suffocated.”

A fire official said apartments have a louvered door and a second, solid-core wooden fire door. The fire chief said the blaze was wind-driven, and some residents say louvered doors may have been left open, causing the fire to spread quickly.

Jeffrey Rockett, a resident of unit 2602, where the fire started, told an HFD investigator he didn’t recall closing the front door when he and his roommate fled.

Possible sources of the fire include: electrical components and fixtures, a lighter wand, a MAPP gas cylinder and a torch.