Ulutunu Faumuina died attempting to save family members from burning, Honolulu, Hawaii, October 15, 1997. Faumuina, 52, cook, and eight members of his family were in the family’s one-story house when, at night, fire broke out in the crawl space beneath the house. Alerted to the fire by his wife, Faumuina exited the house and was seen descending the stairs to ground level to look into the crawl space. He then re-entered the house, flames growing quickly to engulf its underside and spread inside. Faumuina responded to the bedroom belonging to his daughter and her family as his wife fled the burning structure through the window of another bedroom. Conditions deteriorated rapidly, and the house was shortly engulfed by flame. Faumuina was found in the daughter’s bedroom, cradling one of his granddaughters; they had died of effects of the fire, as had five other members of the family.
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