Nobody was living in the house, 99-963A Lalawai Drive, and no other properties were damaged.

"We were fortunate that it was vacant," said Battalion 5 Chief Ron Rico. "From what the neighbors told us, the former residents were evicted last week."

Neighbors said the property owner lives on Maui and that no one was supposed to be living in the home, but there were people on the property earlier in the evening.

They also said the property, despite not having an official resident, saw a lot of traffic and was not in good shape.

"It was pretty ratty," said Joe Corelli, who lives in the neighborhood.

"This is our property just below (the destroyed house) and you can see all the rubbish they were just throwing over the wall. ... The people who were living there got evicted last week. They just moved out Thursday or Friday.

"My wife woke me up and when we got outside you could see the fire about 30 or 40 feet high."

See the aftermath of the fire in this video.

Rico said firefighters were called around 12:30 a.m. and by the time the 'Aiea crew left the station, they could see the fire blazing.

Four companies answered the initial call and three more responded to the second alarm.

Chris Yoshimura and his family live three houses down from the destroyed property.

"I heard some crackling and when I looked out my daughter's window I could see the flames," he said.

Several neighbors called in the fire, but because the house rests below Lalawai Drive — where it is accessed from — and others called it in from Poko Road below, firefighters had trouble initially fighting the blaze.

"The first crews here climbed up the hill and over the fence to get to it," Rico said. "We were getting calls of the fire on both streets."

Firefighters still managed to get the fire under control in less than a half hour, and extinguished it by 3 a.m.

Also compounding the fire fight was the cluttered yard. Abandoned cars, pulled-out car seats, mattresses, car engine and debris were among the scattered items.

Rico said the house was completely destroyed, but there is no estimate as of yet on total damage. The fire's cause is under investigation.