HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - While many ran from the flames, one woman ran toward them.
An Ewa Beach adult foster home was engulfed in flames, and Shannon Armstrong rushed to the rescue.
“When I first came around the corner, you could hear and see sparks and pops,” said Armstrong. “My only thought was, are there people in there?”
Armstrong sprinted to the patio, where she found a 32-year-old woman suffering from severe burns.
“She was really scared and didn’t want to pass away,” Armstrong recalled. “We just kept saying, ‘you’re going to be okay, help is coming.’”
Unable to move her alone, Armstrong said another good Samaritan stepped in to help carry the woman away from the flames until paramedics arrived.
“I just immediately went over, and I couldn’t carry her by myself,” she said.
Days later, Armstrong learned the woman had succumbed to her injuries in the hospital.
The passing raises the death toll from the Ewa Beach fire to two.
The first victim, a 93-year-old woman, was found buried beneath rubble and debris.
“This is the first time we’ve had an incident like this. It’s very rare, and I’m very sad one of the patients passed away,” said Maribel Tan, president of the Adult Foster Home Care Association of Hawaii, which oversees more than 2,000 homes on Oahu.
Tan confirmed the home was a licensed foster care facility.
She said fire drills and inspections are required monthly, with unannounced health inspections conducted every other week.
The home most recently passed certification in April.
“I always make sure to familiarize patients and caregivers with the evacuation plan and available fire exits,” Tan said. “It’s important they know where to go and what to do in case of an emergency.”
Tan added that the association plans to provide financial assistance and resources to the home’s owner, who lost her property in the fire.
The Hawaii State Department of Health say the home was inspected in December of 2024, which identified a few violations, missing medical forms, missing fire drill documentation for two months (November 2023 and December 2023), and a missing signature on a care plan. Corrections to all violations were made by the CCFFH operator and verified by the Office of Healthcare Assurance’s (OHCA) contracted vendor, Community Ties of America (CTA). A follow-up inspection was completed in July 2025 with no violations noted. The CCFFH was found to be in compliance at the time of that inspection.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet released the identities of the 32-year-old and 93-year-old victims.
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