The cause of a brushfire that burned approximately 12 acres around noon yesterday near the Wai'anae Boat Harbor and displaced a number of homeless people will be officially recorded as "undetermined," Fire Capt. Terry Seelig said today.

Although four boys were seen running through the area about the time the fire started, it could not be confirmed that they played a part in causing the blaze, Seelig said.

The fire's cause will continue to be listed as undetermined unless new information surfaces, Seelig said.

Darren DeCosta, one of the tent dwellers living in the bushes where the fire raged shortly before noon on Wednesday, said today that the blaze had barely missed his tent and those of some others who had feared the worst.

Brenda Cruz, who also lived in the thicket between the Wai'anae Boat Harbor and the Wai'anae High School, wasn't so lucky. Cruz lost her tent and all her belongings in the blaze.

Maria Lutz, director of disaster services for the American Red Cross in Hawaii, said Red Cross workers at the scene Wednesday determined that Cruz's tent had been the only one totally destroyed and that other homeless displaced by the fire had been given temporary housing at an area shelter.

Cruz said the Red Cross assisted her Wednesday in getting her companion and herself another tent as well as food and clothing.

"I'm trying to take everything in stride, and just be happy that I'm still alive," said Cruz after she erected a new tent today on the spot where here previous dwelling had been destroyed.

Cruz, DeCosta and others were saddened by the loss of Koko, the year-old mother dog who had been rescued from the flames after being mauled by a mixed breed pit bulldog that had panicked in the fire.

"Koko had been doing pretty good, but then a couple of hours after the fire she just started twitching," said DeCosta. "She ended up not making it."