A mother of three was inside her Maui Meadows home when it suddenly caught on fire Wednesday morning.
The Benetiz family tells KHON2 they started their day like any other. Nef went to work, the kids went to school, and mom stayed at home.
The family had been renting a portion of the house on Kehala Drive since July 2018.
It was around 11 a.m. when Nef’s wife heard something upstairs.
"All of a sudden, she started hearing all these weird noises in the ceiling,” Nef Benetiz said.
Shortly after, she heard an explosion and walked outside to see flames coming from upstairs.
Benetiz said she quickly ran back inside to grab important documents.
"She went down to the propane tank and shut it off,” he said.
Benetiz said she quickly ran to the back cottage where she thought she’d be safe, but the fire spread quickly and she started yelling for help.