A puppy was killed and nine residents were displaced after a fire tore through a small Nuuanu apartment building this morning.

Fire Capt. Scot Seguirant said the fire originated and was confined to the upper floor of the two-story apartment building at 23 Iliahi St., near the Hongwanji Mission School. Three people and a dog escaped the building uninjured.

The fire was reported at 10:25 a.m. and 43 firefighters responded. The five-unit building’s two second-floor apartments received extensive fire damage and the three downstairs units received heavy water damage. The fire was brought under control at 10:47 a.m. and extinguished at 11:01 a.m.

A mother and child in a downstairs unit smelled smoke and escaped on their own. Neighbors alerted another woman living in another downstairs apartment, and she also escaped. No one else was home at the time of the fire.

Firefighters searching for occupants discovered the puppy in an upstairs unit. At least one dog also living upstairs escaped the fire, Seguirant said.

Damage was confined to the building where the fire originated.

Seguirant said that the blaze caused an estimated $300,000 in damage to the structure and $60,000 to its contents.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Red Cross is assisting the nine displaced residents.