A small child was hospitalized with serious burns and five people were left homeless after fire destroyed a two-story house on Maliko Street yesterday.

But the swift actions of a few people and a working smoke alarm may have prevented a deadly holiday tragedy, officials said.

Four residents were in the home shortly before 9 a.m. when the fire started and flames rapidly engulfed the four-bedroom structure at 91-1323 Maliko St.

"It all happened so fast," said Douglas Fernandez, 32, who was there with his girlfriend, Maves Yin, and his sister, Shelly Fernandez and her 3-year-old son, Isaiah, when the fire apparently started in a downstairs bedroom and swept through the house.

Fernandez said he was awakened by the smoke alarm and ran downstairs to where his nephew had been sleeping in a bedroom. With the fire spreading, Fernandez momentarily tried to douse the flames with a water hose.

"It was like a short circuit inside the walls — everything popping like firecrackers and blowing up inside. When I opened the door after the baby came out and the bed was on fire, I was trying to shoot the water hose and everything was coming at me, and burned my hair."

Fernandez dashed up the stairs to warn Yin to get out of the house. In all the confusion, Isaiah had also run upstairs and into the bedroom where Yin was fighting to catch her breath. Meanwhile, next door, neighbor Debra Verdadero had been startled by the sounds of the child's screams and the smell of smoke, and ran outside to investigate.

When Verdadero saw smoke and flames billowing from the Fernandez residence, she dialed 911 on her cell phone and then grabbed her garden hose and started spraying water on the house.

At that moment, Yin was trying to smash the glass out of a second-floor window with her bare arms. The smoke had become too thick and black to attempt to escape with the child down the hallway, she said later.

"The smoke was too dark," said Yin, 27, who suffered minor cuts and bruises on his arms from striking the glass. "I had to break out the window so he could get air. He was already breathing in all that smoke. I was going, 'Oh, my God, baby, I've got to get us out of here.' I was so scared. And then I broke out the window."

Yin grabbed Isaiah and the two escaped out the window and onto the roof.

By that time Fernandez and his sister, Shelley, 34, were out of the house and in the front yard. Holding Isaiah by his wrists, Yin dangled the boy over the edge of the roof and into the arms of his mother below. Douglas Fernandez then helped Yin off the edge of the roof and to safety on the ground.

Isaiah was taken to Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children with first- and second-degree burns, according to Bryan Cheplic, spokesman for the city's emergency services department. The child's family said he was doing well under the circumstances last night.

Honolulu Fire Capt. Earle Kealoha said Verdadero's call came in at 8:58 a.m., and the first of 35 firefighters arrived by 9:03 a.m. The fire was under control by 9:13, but most of the house had been consumed by fire, said Kealoha.

"By the time our units got there most of the upper floor was engulfed in flames," he said.

Kealoha said the fact that the smoke alarm alerted the family and everyone got out of the house quickly likely prevented what could have been a more tragic outcome.

Fire investigators were still trying to determine the cause of the blaze last night. They said the fire appears to have started in the downstairs bedroom. They estimated damage to the home and its contents at $250,000.

Lei Fernandez, the child's grandmother who owns and also lives at the house, had already left for work yesterday morning when the fire broke out. When she arrived home later to find her home still smoldering, Red Cross volunteer disaster responders Paul and Hanna Kath told her they would assist the family with their immediate food, clothing and shelter needs.

Lei Fernandez said her family would be staying with in-laws.

She was stoic about the fact that her home was gone, along with everything in it — including all the family's Christmas gifts. She said she would face what's left of the holiday season with gratitude in her heart.

"The house is a total loss," she said. "That's OK. It could have been worse. I just thank the Lord that my family is safe. That's the main thing. Everybody's going to be fine.

"And at least one thing was saved," she added with a sense of irony. "The Christmas tree."

Yet to be decorated, the tree rested off to the side of the ground-floor lanai — still bundled and unscathed by the fire.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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