UPDATE: Two Dead Following Holualoa Fire
*** Update to story made at 3:45 p.m. to add in the identity of the two fatalities.***
The Hawai’i Police Department has identified the two individuals killed during an early morning house fire in the Holualoa area as 6-year-old Kaeden Matsuyama and 11-year-old Dexten Matsuyama.
Autopsy results are pending lab tests.
***Original story posted at 9:12 a.m.***
Two unidentified children have died as a result of an overnight fire in the Holualoa area, across from Holualoa School.
Hawai’i County Fire Department officials say fire personnel responded just after 2 a.m. Thursday to a single family home fully engulfed in flames.
Firefighters initially could not make an immediate entrance into the home, as the walls and ceiling were engulfed and collapsing.
Two adults and two children were able to exit the house and made fire officials aware that two individuals remained stuck inside.
Upon entrance into the structure, firefighters located two victims.
Hawai’i Police Department officials said Thursday morning that the lives lost in the fire have been tentatively identified as an 11-year-old boy and a 6-year-old boy. Identity of the children is being withheld pending positive identification.
An autopsy has been ordered to determine the exact cause of death.
The Hawai’i County Fire Department and Hawai’i Police Department are investigating the fire, with HPD taking the lead.
Total loss had not been determined and police do not suspect foul play.