WAI'ANAE — The cause of the Wednesday wildfire that scorched 12 acres between the Wai'anae Boat Harbor and Wai'anae High School, and displacing several homeless people living in the bushes, was officially listed yesterday as "undetermined," said Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. Terry Seelig.

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

Meanwhile, folks living in the bushes where the fire raged shortly before noon on Wednesday spent yesterday trying to put their lives back together.

Darren DeCosta, one of the tent dwellers, said the spiraling flames had barely missed his tent as well as those of others, such as his neighbor, Richard Clark, who had feared the worst.

Brenda Cruz, who also lived in the thicket, 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 Hawai'i, said Red Cross workers at the scene Wednesday determined that Cruz's tent had been the only one destroyed, and that other homeless folks displaced by the fire had been given temporary housing at an area shelter.

Cruz said the Red Cross assisted in getting her companion and herself another tent, as well as clothing and food for two weeks.

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

"We have it all set up like there was no fire," she said. "It's just like home again."

FAREWELL TO KOKO

Cruz said the Red Cross gave her $475 to pay for the new tent, as well as money for needed clothing and food for two weeks. She said she still doesn't have blankets, pots and pans, or other necessities. And nothing can replace the personal possessions she lost. But she expressed gratitude for the help she got.

Cruz, DeCosta and others were saddened by the loss of Koko, the year-old mother dog that had been rescued from the flames after being badly mauled by a mixed-breed pit bull 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," DeCosta said. "She ended up not making it."

"They buried her out by the beach where she was raising her puppies," added Cruz, who said several relatives and friends of Koko's owner, Tiger Breaux, held a short ceremony for the dog.

Also saddened by the loss of Koko was Eugene Kon, 24, the previously unidentified Good Samaritan who had rescued Koko from the flames and carried her in his arms to safety.

Kon lives nearby and happened to be in the park with his companion, Natalie DeCosta (no relation to Darren DeCosta), when the fire broke out.

He said yesterday that he rushed in to rescue the dogs without thinking because he couldn't stand the thought of them perishing in the flames.

"They were going to just leave them and let 'em burn because they were fighting," Kon said. "I couldn't deal with that."

Someone else pulled out Baby, the bulldog that attacked Koko, he said — but not before Baby had bitten him on the arm.

"And then I just went over and cut holes in the tent and pulled out the other dog (Koko)," Kon said.