The Faumuina family rented the 520-square-foot house at 1816-G Palolo Ave. in November 1996, less than a year before the fire, paying $875 per month for the two-bedroom wooden home, originally built in 1963. It was one of three homes on the 15,665-square foot lot rented out by Ted Li, owner of the Crack Seed Center in Ala Moana Center.

Elaine and Ulu Faumuina had met in Hawaiåi in the late 1960s while she was attending Church College of Hawaiåi, now known as BYU-Hawaiåi. They got married and returned home to Western Samoa for several years before coming back to Hawaiåi in 1974 ≥to provide a better life for their family.≤ They were Mormons, worked hard, raised their six children.

Li also came to Hawaiåi in 1974 in search of a better life. Li was born to a Chinese family in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 1946. The family later moved to South Vietnam, where they lived in the shadow of the countryπs long civil war. His parents twice changed his name and gave him a new identity to avoid conscription into the Vietnamese army, first shaving several years off his age and then apparently buying or inventing Chinese citizenship, Li said in a deposition.

≥I donπt want to become a soldier and kill people,≤ he explained.

Li, trained in Saigon as a computer programmer, went to work for a computer company, Southeast Asia Computer Associates, and gained U.S. citizenship a couple of years later. In 1976, he and his first wife purchased a condominium apartment, then rented out the condo when they bought their first Palolo house two years later. Eventually they accumulated eight rental units, court records indicate.

Li has been active in Chinese community affairs, and served a four-year term on the City Planning Commission from 1991-π95.

Although the Faumuinaπs Palolo house wasnπt fancy, it ≥wasnπt a dump,≤ a former tenant told investigators.

But it was small and it was crowded, especially since Ailatupu (called Tupu) lost his job and moved in along with Ramona (Mona) and the three kids.

To make room for his sisterπs family, Ulutunu Jr. (Ulu) and his younger brother Kalani gave up the bedroom and moved into the living room, one sleeping on the couch and the other on the floor, with Monaπs three kids often joining them.

There was a refrigerator in the corner of the living room, along with the couch and television. The boysπ clothing was stored in Elaine and Ulu Sr.πs bedroom, already filled with an organ and a queen-size bed.

Elaine told fire investigators the house had no smoke alarms and, although there is some evidence to the contrary, none were found by fire investigators. But she never asked Li to have them installed, and said finances prevented her from buying and installing them herself.

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 1997, 10:30 p.m.

Ulu Jr. was watching television and waiting for his father to get home from his job as a cook at the Princess Kaåiulani Hotel so they could talk football.

Ulu, at 6 feet 1 inch and close to 300 pounds, was playing his second season as offensive tackle and defensive end for Kaimukï High School. When his father arrived about 10:30 p.m., Ulu fixed the older man a glass of water, and they sat down to talk.

≥He told me that one of his friends at the hotel, his son plays for Kalaheo, the next team weπre going to play,≤ Ulu said later. ≥[S]o he was bragging to his friends that, åOh, my son is going to beat you guys,π and then his friends are bragging that, oh, they had a better team. ... So he said, åMan, you better beat these guys.π≤

The two talked for what Ulu estimated was 30 to 45 minutes, then watched television for a while longer before heading to bed.

11:30 p.m.

It was one of those humid island nights in October and hot in the house, so after his father went to bed, Ulu went downstairs to cool off.

≥Downstairs≤ was a private hangout under the house made of several pallets and a sheet of plywood covered with a lauhala mat. Tupu had built it after he and Ramona moved in, apparently for relief from the crowded upstairs. Ulu would often go downstairs to study, read or just be alone, according to later statements. There wasnπt enough room to stand up, but there was plenty of headroom to sit on the mat or sleep.

A 100-foot orange extension cord ran from the washer-dryer on the side of the house, under the stairs and over to the platform, then joined a short brown extension cord into which were plugged an auto repair light that dangled from a beam and an old radio/tape player.

Getting that radio to work wasnπt always easy, Ulu told investigators later. He had to ≥play with the whole radio basically and then I had to shake it ... or play with the cord, too ... sometimes I had to like just hold the wiring and if I would do it, it would just play by itself.≤

There were boxes of clothes and kids toys belonging to Ramonaπs family stored under the house along with other odds and ends, including a dresser, two propane tanks and some supplies left over from the wedding of another sister, Lagi, several months earlier. Ulu Sr. cooked the food for the wedding, and the extra cooking supplies, including canisters of gas for a Coleman stove, were still under the house.

≥I was going to go back up, take a shower and go to bed,≤ Ulu said. Instead, he fell asleep after 10 or 15 minutes.

≥I had this one song stuck in my head that night,≤ he later said. ≥This is a song about a girl singing to her boyfriend, right, and the song says that her tears will burn the pillow and set this house on fire. Well, I was listening to the song and I guess I dozed off to sleep.≤

It didnπt seem like a big thing at the time, but investigators concluded the fire began with a slow, smoldering burn caused by a short circuit in the radio.

11:50 p.m.

The closest neighbor, John Le, lived with his girlfriend in a studio apartment in the bottom of the house next door, also owned by Ted Li. He arrived home just before midnight and smelled something burning, according to statements to fire investigators. He looked around the apartment, then walked around outside the house, but couldnπt locate the source.

Le told investigators the burning smell kept getting stronger, and he later went outside for another look, this time checking the cars parked in front of the Faumuina house. Again he found nothing and went back inside.

Wednesday, Oct. 15, 12:28 a.m.

A caller to 911 reported a possible stroke victim on Ua Drive in lower Palolo. Within minutes, Engine 33 from the Palolo Fire Station was dispatched to the scene to provide emergency care and to wait for the nearest available ambulance to arrive from Wailupe. It was to prove to be a fateful call.

Engine 33 left the Palolo station with Acting Captain William Ralston and a crew of three. Just before reaching their destination, firefighter Alika Winter, sitting just behind Ralston and facing the back of the truck, spotted the fire, which already lit up the side of the valley. He excitedly pointed it out to the others, according to their later statements.

If the Palolo fire company had been free to respond, Ralston and his crew could have been at the scene in a minute or two. But Fire Department rules required the company commander to contact the Fire Alarm Bureau and jointly decide whether they should continue to the original destination or divert to the new emergency.

As one fire official said later: ≥He cannot tell them that he wants to move from going to one alarm to another alarm. He canπt do that. He cannot say, åOh, I see this big fire, Iπm stopping here and that other alarm, forget it.π He canπt do that.≤

So Paloloπs Engine 33 continued on to Ua Drive.

12:30 a.m.

Ulu awoke with his legs burning and a fire just a few feet away, which he described as about the size of a camp fire with flames about 3 feet high. He pulled off his lavalava and tried unsuccessfully to smother the flames.

≥I was shocked,≤ Ulu said. ≥I thought I was still dreaming. I said, åOh, fire,π then I just started swinging. ä I gave it like three swings, couldnπt do nothing. ä I was just beating the flames.≤

So he kicked open the small gate and ran up the kitchen stairs to warn the others.

John Leπs girlfriend, Hao Le, told fire investigators they ran outside after hearing Uluπs shouts. She described the fire as ≥the size of a good sized dining room table.≤

12:34 a.m.

Uluπs shouts and the spreading flames now caught the attention of other neighbors. The first call to 911 was recorded just seconds after 12:34 a.m., and three others came in within the next minute. According to the fire investigation report, all these callers said the Faumuina house was already ≥heavily involved≤ in fire.

≥The house is on fire!≤ Ulu ran up the kitchen stairs and through the house. His first thought was for the kids, and he pounded several times on Ramonaπs bedroom door. Then he ran through the open door into his parentsπ bedroom and kicked their bed, still shouting. There was smoke in the kitchen and living room, but the air was clearer over by the bedrooms. After sounding the alarm, Ulu headed back to the kitchen door, his mother following close behind. When he opened the door, flames were already visible.

≥I mean the fire was coming through, but I donπt think the stairs was on fire,≤ Ulu said. With several neighbors outside yelling ≥Jump, jump!≤ he leapt over the flames and landed on the lower stairs, a height of 5 or 6 feet, and ran in search of a garden hose.

12:36 A.M.

Paloloπs engine 33 arrived at its destination on Ua Drive and found the potential stroke victim had regained consciousness and even answered the door himself. While his crew administered oxygen, Acting Captain Ralston reported the new fire to the Fire Alarm Bureau. He was told other units were already on their way to the fire scene, and instructed him to wait for the ambulance to arrive before joining them. Ralston began pacing the floor anxiously, already planning in his mind how to best attack the fire.

Records show Engine 5 and Ladder 5 from Kaimukï and Engine 29 from McCully pulled out of their respective stations at the same moment, 12:36 a.m.

Capt. Marshall Giddens was seated in the front of Engine 5 as it roared down Waiåalae Avenue and made a turn up 10th Avenue.

≥I could see a glow in the sky,≤ Giddens said. Heading mauka on 10th Avenue, ≥We could see at least two structures fully involved in flames, the flames had gone through the roof and was lighting the sky.≤
At approximately the same time as the engines rolled from their stations, Elaine Faumuina watched Ulu leap over the flames to the ground, then closed the door behind her and went back inside, calling out, ≥Get up, get up!≤
This time, Mona and Tupu came right out and headed toward the front door but quickly came back with bad news. ≥Canπt get out,≤ Elaine recalled her daughter saying. ≥The stairs are on fire.≤

With critical seconds ticking by, and with smoke beginning to fill the house, Elaine yelled for them to break the window and jump, then ran back into her own bedroom and smashed out the louvered window with her hand. She stood on the bed, climbed through the window, and fell feet first to the ground, which was already hot enough to cause first- and second-degree burns on her feet.

Ulu, after his leap down the stairs, saw John Le, and they went straight for the closest garden hose at Leπs house, but discovered it was stuck under a parked car.

For a brief moment, they saw Ulu Sr. open the front door. The older man went down a couple of stairs, looked under the house, then went back inside. No words passed between them, and Ulu never saw his father or heard his voice again.

At that moment, Ulu recounted later, the flames didnπt appear that big but were spreading along the underside of the house and coming out from the sides. An analysis by a California consultant, portions of which are filed in court, estimates the fire could have reached ≥flashover≤ in as little as two minutes, at which point the whole structure would explode in flames.

Time was running out. Ulu tried one hose and then another, but there was not enough water pressure, and a third faucet was too hot to touch.

He then retreated up the stairs to the top of the retaining wall behind the house. Thick smoke was pouring out from under the house. He could see his mother beneath her bedroom window.

Elaine Faumuina said later that she could hear her husband and daughter inside yelling, ≥Elaine, the children, the children,≤ and she was shouting back, ≥Mona, break the window! Throw the kids out!≤

She also retreated up the steps in the retaining wall and the hillside beyond. ≥I sat there and waited ... nobody came out.≤

But a second or two after his motherπs call, Ulu heard a scream, just a single Samoan word, and glass breaking, and saw something — or someone — come out the window. He thought it had been Tupuπs voice.

Grabbing a blanket off the clothesline between the retaining wall and the house, Ulu said he covered his head and tried to get to whatever had come through, but the heat and thick black smoke drove him back. Then, in shock and despair, he ran from the fire.

Another neighbor, Louis Perez, found Elaine crying and hysterical on the mountainside behind the house.

≥I grabbed her and held her,≤ Perez said, worried because the fire had already spread to a third house behind them. ≥We have to get out of here or we both gonna die. And she didnπt want to leave. So I kind of like just kept talking to her. Then eventually she stood up, and we walked around.≤

Three hours later, firefighters found the bodies of Tupu and his 6-year old son outside the house in the narrow space under the window. The five others were found in the house, including Ulu Sr., reportedly found in Ramonaπs bedroom, cradling one of his granddaughters.

12:40 a.m.

Engine 5 and Engine 29 arrived within seconds of each other and took positions on parallel driveways. In the first minutes, each aimed a deluge from their 500-gallon on-board tanks towards the fire.

Engine 5, which was on the driveway leading directly to the fire scene, was initially held back by a broken electric line which was swinging wildly and sparking whenever it hit the ground. More crucial minutes were lost when the valve on the nearest fire hydrant broke, preventing sufficient water from flowing and requiring the heavy fire hose to be hauled several hundred feet up Palolo Avenue to the next available hydrant.

But Capt. Giddens and other firefighters said these delays made no difference because the Faumuinaπs house was already ≥flattened out≤ when they arrived, the house next door was completely engulfed with flames coming through the roof, and at least half the house on the other side was also in flames.

≥I donπt see how anybody could have survived that. The roof was gone. It was already down to the ground. The whole house was down.≤

When Paloloπs own Engine 33 finally arrived at 12:44 and took a position on Loke Place, above the fire, neighbors were screaming at the engineπs crew: ≥What took you so long?≤

According to Ralston: ≥This one guy pointed right at the truck and said, åYouπre from Palolo. You guys are right over there. Where were you?π≤

Ralston later reported: ≥There were no problems or delays once the plan was implemented, in fact it was a routine and timely fire stop.≤

Except, of course, for the seven who died.