Fire breaks out in CK

A fire of unknown origin struck the house of 75-year-old Chinese artist Lung Kung on Texas Road in Chalan Kanoa yesterday, just before noon.

No one was reported injured as Kung, the only person inside the house when the fire broke out, managed to get out when the blaze engulfed the second floor of the two-story building.

As of 5pm yesterday, arson investigators were still seen on the second floor of the house.

“Everybody’s safe,” Kung said, adding that the fire started in the unoccupied second floor of his house. He declined to speak further.

Kung’s wife was at a nearby store when the fire happened shortly before noon. At least three others are renting one of the three rooms on the ground floor.

The fire immediately gobbled the entire second floor, which was made of light materials. Firefighters managed to stop the blaze from spreading to the ground floor and an adjacent two-story concrete house.

The ground floor sustained water and smoke damage.

Only a few of the many tropical fishes that Kung was raising in aquariums on the ground floor died from the incident.

Kung, an artist who has been on Saipan for 30 years now, used to own King Sign from 1983 until it closed in 2010. Many of his paintings survived the fire.

Kung’s son, who asked not to be identified, said he was in Garapan when he received a call from a friend that his parents’ house were on fire. He said he immediately proceeded to Chalan Kanoa at noon where he saw several fire trucks at the scene and flames engulfing the second floor of the building.

He said he later saw his parents near the house watching as firefighters tried to extinguish the blaze. He said firefighters managed to kill the blaze around 2pm.

A member of a family that owns the adjacent house said their two air-conditioners were damaged and three windows had cracks.

The family member said he was on the computer inside his room when he noticed smoke coming from his neighbor’s house. When he came out to check, he saw thick smoke and fire spreading on the second floor of his neighbor’s house.

This incident is the latest of a string of fires that hit Saipan in the last few months. On April 16, a fire razed to the ground two houses and also engulfed the interior of an adjacent house along Ellegh Avenue in San Jose.

No one was reported injured as most of the occupants were either at work or in school when the blaze broke out past 1pm.

Last April 12, a fire struck the Islander Club behind the Gold Beach Hotel on Pupulu Drive in Garapan. No one was reported injured in the blaze as the club was closed when the fire of unknown cause broke out.

Bush fires swept a big area and burned several banana plants at the former Botanical Garden in Papago last April 10 and 11.