'EWA — Soda Creek residents last night pounded on doors and helped neighbors flee a fire that severely damaged two houses.

One man was treated for smoke inhalation, but there were no serious injuries.

The 9 p.m. fire gutted one house on Waimomona Place and jumped to an adjacent house, causing extensive damage there.

Eleven fire companies and about 50 firefighters responded to the alarm and had the fire under control about 10:15 p.m.

Fire Capt. Robert Main said the fire started at 91-984 Waimomona Place and that winds blew it in a mauka direction to the house at 91-992 Waimomona Place, setting that house on fire.

Neighbors said a 61-year-old man was sleeping in the front room of the first house when the fire broke out. They pounded on his house to rouse him.

A neighbor who gave her name only as Linda said when she saw flames, she went outside. "As soon as we came out the smoke turned black and I started screaming.

"It was bad. ... We pounded on the garage door. We pounded on the house."

But it took a while for firefighters to get the man out because the house was packed full of possessions. "The house seems to be full of personal items that impeded his way," Main said.

The man was treated for smoke inhalation but declined to be taken to a hospital, Main said.

He was attended to in a front yard, and when he got up and walked around, many in the crowd of about 100 people who had gathered in the street applauded.

Vata Halafihi, who was visiting his cousin across the street, said they went to 91-992 Waimomona Place "and (tried) to see something. We knocked on the door and shouted. We saw an old lady; she looked like she was folding clothes."

The resident, who said her name is Vivian, came out of the house "but she went back in two times to get her dogs and her bags," Halafihi said. "I pulled her out. I'm a lucky man, I got blessing for helping the old lady."

Vivian said she rents the house and was home at the time with her granddaughter. Both of them made it out safely.

She said she got her three dogs out, including one with three legs. Her grandson, who also lives in the home, was not home at the time.

"I smelled smoke earlier and I thought somebody was charcoaling," Vivian said.

Main said the fire damaged 40 percent of her home.

Main urged people to not clutter their homes with so many possessions that the items would block escape routes in case of fire or other emergencies.