19 people are being assisted by the American Red Cross after a North Las Vegas apartment fire Sunday morning.
The fire occurred in a four-plex apartment building around 4:45 a.m. in the 2100 block of Statz Street, near Lake Mead Boulevard and Belmont Street. It took about 20 minutes to put out the fire.
The apartment where the fire originated is a complete loss along with a second apartment that sustained significant smoke damage.
The Red Cross reports they're helping 10 adults and nine children after the fire.
No injuries were reported.
There was a total of $140,000 in damage. North Las Vegas fire reported the cause appears to be accidental. Clark County and Las Vegas fire departments assisted on the blaze.
A neighbor told 13 Action News the fire started with a candle and a bottle of alcohol, apparently leading to the fire spreading quickly.
Neighbors were in tears Sunday afternoon thinking how much worse it could have been.
"I thought I started it cause I do maintenance and I thought I left something plugged in so here I am so emotional because this is my whole family," Melissa Cross said. "I couldn't imagine. No. I just couldn't imagine. I would have lost it. It would have hurt me bad."
Cross and her family ran to safety Sunday morning when they noticed their neighbor's apartment on fire.
"When I came out, there was just flames coming out the windows, the door, I mean it got so hot so fast, I couldn't even believe it," she said. "I couldn't even imagine."
She believes a tree stump might have prevented more damage. If the tree hadn't been cut down last week, Cross and her sister believe the flames could have transferred from their neighbors' building.
"If I wouldn't have cut the tree down, last week, it would have burned," Cross said. "It would have caught our houses on fire, all of us, cause it was so big. This tree was like 35 feet tall. And it reached over to their roof to our roof. It went all the way over."
