Late Sunday afternoon University of Hawaii officials said employee pay checks were not burned in a fire that destroyed a building on the University of Hawaii Manoa campus.

However, a UH spokesperson said other university services and payments could be delayed.

The fire broke out just after 8 a.m. in a wooden structure on Lower Campus Road, near the Stan Sheriff Center.

The office was home to the university's Fiscal Management and Procurement Office.

Campus security first saw a huge black cloud of smoke.

"I saw flames coming out from maybe like four windows, just gushing out, coming up to the roof. I mean, it was just crazy," said Reymundo Gomez, a campus security employee.

Flames and smoke poured out of the office that handles payroll records, student loans and other fiscal matters for the university's 10 campuses, including 60,000 students and 7,000 to 8,000 faculty members and staff.

"There is a substantial amount of records that are on paper and we suspect there might be items that are lost or damaged by water," said U.H. spokesman Gregg Takayama.

Takayama said some records are stored on computers off site, but the university's effort to transition to a completely computerized fiscal management system was not yet complete.

"That's still several months away. So there will be substantial loss in terms of records, we believe, at this point," Takayama said. And Takayama said the UH is uncertain how much information will be retrievable from office computers and papers, and if payroll will be affected.