WAIPAHU — Seventy-nine-year-old Grace Tui sat quietly in a small ground-floor corner unit of a two-story building as relatives packed up her belongings.

"Lucky we get everything in the house," Tui said yesterday in the aftermath of the fast-spreading midday fire Tuesday that gutted the building at 94-241 Aniani Place but did only minor damage to her unit. "I like stay (here) but no can."

Tui and her husband, John, were among eight families totaling about 36 people permanently displaced by the fire, which Honolulu Fire Department investigators determined was caused by children playing with fireworks. The Hawai'i Chapter of the American Red Cross set up a shelter nearby to assist 17 people from four of the families.

Fire spokesman Capt. Emmit Kane said the building is "uninhabitable." Damage is estimated at $415,000.

Two of the displaced families are related to Tui.

Theresa Tuaau, the eldest of Tui's 12 children, managed the building and lived in an upstairs unit.

Next to the building, Tuaau's husband, Tavita, used a two-car-garage-sized tent with a wooden roof to conduct church services.

Tuaau's son, Fati Tanuvasa, and his family lived next door to his mother.

Relatives are assisting Tui and her family with temporary housing. "Kids throwing fireworks," Tui answered when asked what caused the fire. "You know, it's the parents' fault. They got to stop the kids."

Tofamamao Laufasa, 17, who graduated from Waipahu High School in June, was doing laundry shortly before noon when she went out front to check on the smell of smoke coming from the side of the building where the tent is located.

"The wind was blowing crazy and I saw the fire," Laufasa said. "I started screaming 'help!' and my mom was telling me 'why you screaming?' and to be quiet in Samoan. I told her there was a fire."

In seconds, Laufasa said, the wind spread the fire to the apartment building. She called 911 while neighbors were trying to fight the blaze with fire extinguishers, including some that didn't work.

Laufasa went back to the ground-floor two-bedroom unit where she lived with her parents, three sisters and brother to help her mother, Olive, bring out her 67-year-old father, who is disabled.

"Everybody was just running for their lives," Laufasa said. "Thank God everybody's alive and no one got hurt."

The Laufasas are staying with relatives.

Fireworks started two fires almost simultaneously, said Kane. One was in the brush next to the tent and the other inside the tent, he said.

With flammable materials, such as rugs and piled-up clothing, inside the tent, the fire spread quickly to the wooden roof where the wind easily carried it to the wooden building.

Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com