Two people are dead and one unaccounted for this afternoon after a raging early-morning fire consumed a six-bedroom house in Makiki Heights.

The house — a three-story structure built on a hillside at 2069 Mauna Place — was completely gutted by the blaze, which lit up the night and could be seen from nearby Makiki high-rises.

Police spokesman Maj. Frank Fujii said eight people lived in the house and that the victims were a man and a woman.

Because the structure was so badly damaged and in danger of collapsing, fire personnel were initially unable to enter the house to recover the bodies and to search for any other victims. Lumber was brought in to shore up the frame, with police saying the work might extend beyond the day.

But by 12:30 this afternoon, fire personnel were able to recover the bodies.

There was no official word on any other victim, but firefighters had completed three searches of the house by late afternoon without finding another body.

Fire Capt. Terry Seelig said there was initial confusion concerning the number of residents in the house because tenants tended to come and go and might have been subleasing units or entertaining friends.

Seelig said about 40 firefighters from five engine companies, two ladder companies and a rescue unit responded to the call at 12:20 a.m. and found the house fully engulfed. The fire was declared contained at 12:54 a.m.

There was no damage to surrounding homes and no firefighters were injured, Seelig said.

After bringing the fire under control, firefighters were able to place a ladder against the exterior of the home and peer in through a window of one of the bedrooms, Seelig said.

There, they spotted what appeared to be a man's body.

A second body was discovered a while later, Seelig said.

Both bodies were in the upper level of the house, burned beyond recognition.

Police are investigating reports that a loud argument involving one of the renters at the home was heard about 45 minutes before the fire was reported.

A woman who identified herself as "Mara" said she was a part-owner of the house and was at home when the fire broke out. Mara said she heard an argument, followed by the sound of a smoke alarm going off.

Neighbor Maria Torcia-Burke said she was awakened by the sounds of an argument coming from the house.

"I heard mostly a woman yelling and screaming," Torcia-Burke said.

Rick Burke said his wife got up a short time later and told him the house was on fire. The Burkes said they called 911.

As the house went up in flames, confusion and fear spread through nearby homes.

Mei-Mei Engel, whose home is right next to the house that burned, said her husband woke her and told her to get herself and the couple's two sons out of the house.

"It was the most terrifying experience I have ever had," Engel said. "The embers from the fire were falling on my house like orange rain."

Engel said she was amazed at how fast the flames seemed to spread through the burning house.

"I saw some flame when I closed the windows in the first bedroom, and in the short time it took me to get to the windows in the second bedroom, the whole house had become engulfed in flames," Engel said.

Engel said at one point, firefighters told her to soak the roof of her house. As it turned out, her husband and two other men who were helping him were already doing that.

Engel said she had lost track of her husband and told the firefighters: "I don't care about the house, I just care about my husband."

She said she later learned he was down the slope from the main portion of her house, wetting down the roof of a lower portion.

She described the scene on the street outside the burning home as "total confusion."