The Pearl City house that a fire partially destroyed Saturday has 26 dwellers, the family members who reside there say — not 34 people as reported by authorities, volunteers and then eventually local media including the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Twenty-six people still arguably amounts to tight quarters for the eight-bedroom dwelling. Nonetheless, the family members said Sunday that the arrangement allows them to live in a way that reflects their Pacific island traditions while also handling the expensive demands of paying rent and mortgages on Oahu.

“I think it’s part of our culture,” Vick Howard, the family patriarch, said Sunday as donors dropped off blankets, school supplies and food to help the home’s nine family members displaced when the fire consumed a three-bedroom wing of the house. “We have to eat together, sleep together.”

No one was reported injured in the two-alarm blaze, reported at about 9 a.m. Saturday. It did an estimated $130,000 in damage to the wood-and-hollow tile house on the 700 block of Puu Kala Street near Pearl City Shopping Center. The cause remains under investigation. Twelve of the 26 family members were home at the time, those who lived there said.

Howard said he purchased the property in 2005 for his family and that additional members have gradually arrived since, bringing the total to 12 adults and 14 kids. Some are small children born into the family.

Several others, he said, are staying there long-term as they look to move to the mainland.

“Our house is probably the most welcoming house,” Howard said, adding that the adults have jobs and help pay the mortgage. The five adults and four kids who were displaced by Saturday’s blaze continue to live on the property as Red Cross volunteers try to find accommodations while their wing of the home is rebuilt, family members said.

Howard did not want to specify further from where they had emigrated because of the continued local prejudice that those in his community face, he said.

“We want to thank our neighbors,” said a daughter-in-law of Howard’s who did not want to be identified for the same reasons. Several neighbors brought food and cooked for them, they said.

The family further expressed gratitude to Joy of Christ Lutheran Church across the street, which they said gave the family shelter during the fire and its cleanup.

Red Cross volunteers and the Honolulu Fire Department had reported Saturday that 34 people lived at the home. The Hawaii Red Cross did not respond to messages for comment Sunday.

Capt. David Jenkins, an HFD spokesman, said the higher number was an initial report made amid “a lot of stuff going on” at the fire scene.

Howard added that he and other members of the family have purchased land in the Hilo area, aiming to give younger members of the family future living options — if the family eventually builds homes there.