An early morning fire destroyed a one-bedroom structure on Mokauea Island, the site of Oahu’s only fishing village, in Keehi Lagoon.

There are at least four families who lease land on the 10-acre island owned the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. The 65-year lease is assigned to the Mokauea Fishermen’s Association signed by Joanie Bagod, state officials said. Bagod lives in a house adjacent to the one that was destroyed in the early morning blaze that was reported at 5:10 this morning.

The burned structure was one of four that were built on stilts on the ewa end of the island in the Kalihi Channel.

Capt. Terry Seelig, spokesman for the Honolulu Fire Department, said that because many people sleep or live on the five structures on the island, “it was hard to account for everyone.”

“It was confusing to determine who is out when the fire started and who was sleeping there today.”

By mid-morning city officials, representatives of  Kai Makana Foundation and family members said no one was injured in the fire, which was extinguished at 7:07 a.m.

One woman, who declined to be identified, said her father lived in the burned structure, before she left the boat landing for the island to look for him.

Chuck Donathan said he arrived at the boat landing just as fire trucks were congregating in the parking lot at 5:20 this morning.

“It was fully engulfed,” he said.

He estimated that yellow flames, rising 20 to 30 feet, were easily visible from the boat landing which is near the Honolulu Community College’s Marine Education Training Center.

Firefighters also were hampered because the island just a few miles off Sand Island Access Road doesn’t have any electricity or water.

Seelig said about 15 firefighters were shuttled to the island on the department’s 22-foot rescue boat.

Firefighters also had to be cautious in using the water gun mounted on the foredeck of its fire boat since it is capable of streaming 2,000 gallons of water a minute, Seelig added.

“We didn’t want to injure anyone,” Seelig added, “or push the fire into another structure.”

More than 50 firefighters from five engine, two ladder and rescue companies responded to the alarm.

The fire delayed the start of a service project for 50 Farrington High School participating in “Project East” sponsored by the school’s engineering academy.

Jenna Ishii, project manager with the Kai Makana Foundation, said the students are working on a native plant lab on the island and also take water samples from the island’s 300-square foot fishpond.

Ishii said that of the six structures on the island, one is empty and abandoned.

Ishii residents of Mokauea told her that “as soon as they saw the fire they tried to put it out.”

She said that residents in the past have unsuccessfully asked the state for funds to purchase firefighting equipment and other supplies.

Four families live on the 10-acre Mokauea Island.

Electricity on the island is provided by generator and all supplies, including drinking water, is brought to the island by boat, she said. Residents also recently completed the construction of a composting restroom facility.

Mokauea was once a self-sustaining settlement, with a fishpond and vegetable gardens. In 1975 the state tried to evict the islanders from their homes in order to build an extension to the Honolulu Airport runway. The state ordered 17 families to leave, and then burned the houses of some of the “squatters.”

The fishermen fought back, though, and with the help of Save Our Surf organized the Mokauea Fishermen’s Association, which entered a 65-year lease with the state  agreeing to rebuild their houses according to the building code and set up an educational program for local students to learn about traditional fishing and the reef environment. The U.S. Navy provided labor and machinery to construct a fishpond on the eastern side of the island. That lease will expire in 2043.