HONOLULU — Karen Hastings was in her 31st-floor Honolulu apartment when she smelled smoke. She ran out to her balcony, looked down and saw flames five floors below her.

“The fire just blew up and went flying right out the windows,” the 71-year-old Hastings said of the first moments of the high-rise blaze that killed at least three people and injured 12. “And that was like a horror movie. Except it wasn’t a horror movie, it was for real.”

The fire broke out Friday afternoon in a unit on the 26th floor, where all three of the dead were found, Fire Chief Manuel Neves said. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

The building known as the Marco Polo residences is not required to have fire sprinklers, which would have confined the blaze to the unit where it started, Neves said. The 36-floor building near the tourist mecca of Waikiki was built in 1971, before sprinklers were mandatory in high-rises. It has over 500 units.

As embers smoldered late into the night, firefighters were searching the damaged areas to make sure no additional people perished. Britt Reller, a Hawaiian Airlines in-flight manager, and his mother, Melba Jeannine Dilley, were among the victims, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.

Phil Reller, a pastor, told the paper that he received a call from his brother, Britt, saying he was unable to get to their 85-year-old mother.

His brother said smoke was filling his room, and he had crawled under a bed. “He couldn’t reach my mother,” Phil Reller said.

Hastings said the fearsome flames drove her and a neighbor to run down 14 floors until they found a safe stairwell to get some air.

“We actually saw a person laying on a ledge, and I don’t know whether he made it (or) not,” Hastings said.

The vast, wave-shaped building has several sections. The blaze was mostly confined to a single section, and only the units immediately above it and to the side of it were evacuated, while many residents stayed inside.

The blaze was still burning some four hours after it broke out as the sun set, but it was down to mostly embers by then, an official said. A shelter was set up at a nearby school where about 50 residents had gathered late in the evening.

Most evacuations went calmly and smoothly, security guard Leonard Rosa said.

The fire department said Saturday morning most residents will be allowed to return home, but the 26th-28th floors will remain closed because of extensive fire, water and smoke damage to about a dozen units.

Cory La Roe, who is from Florida and stationed in Hawaii with the Air Force, works night shifts and was asleep when sirens woke him at about 2:15 p.m.

La Roe said he didn’t hear any announcements and there were no flashing fire alarm lights in the building, but “after I saw people running out and went out to the hallway, I knew it was a fire alarm.”

He saw an elderly couple who looked “sooty” and were taken to a hospital. He saw other people brought out on stretchers.

He said he was surprised to realize the building didn’t have a sprinkler system.

“That’s one thing that I wasn’t aware of prior to moving in,” La Roe said.

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said the city needs to look at passing a law requiring that older buildings be retrofitted with sprinklers.

“The biggest argument is the affordability,” Caldwell said. “Residents have to pay. It’s pretty expensive. But if it saves a life and it’s your life, it’s worth the cost.”

Associated Press writer Caleb Jones contributed.