17 people were forced to leave their homes, and eight houses were destroyed by flames and water from a fire that erupted into two alarms in a sprawling housing complex situated in northwestern Las Vegas early Saturday, firefighters reported.

There was no injury to anyone or killed, and the incident is still under examination to determine the cause and determine the cost of damage to the houses, According to Las Vegas Fire Chief Fernando Gray.

Gray had just completed briefing his team at the scene where the fire started, which was the Bella Solana Apartment Homes at 7101 Smoke Ranch Road, as firefighters searched for hot spots while water and ashes continued to flow into the parking area.

The fire department was called to the scene, located close to Rock Springs Drive just west of U.S. Highway 95, at 7:13 a.m. And a short time later, the commanders requested another alarm, eventually sending 23 firefighters to the scene, according to Diana Paul, spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Fire Department.

The fire department put out the flame around 8:08 a.m. 7 adults, and 10 kids were forced to evacuate, and firefighters asked for the Red Cross to provide assistance, Paul said.

Many neighbors rushed to knock on doors in order to be alerted and to assist residents in getting out as smoke, and large flames erupted from the top of one complex’s two-story structures, which house a variety of units.

Terry Georgiou, 38, one of the residents who was awakened by the fire, claimed he saw flames that were 6-8 feet in height when crews used axes to smash into the roof, and firefighters were raised in an elevated tower ladder bucket in order to spray water out of a hose pressurized.

“It took them a long time to extinguish it, approximately a half-hour or forty-five minutes,” Georgiou explained. “It was quite a large fire. The firefighters did an impressive job, though.”

Vertis Henry, 33, was one of the eight residents relocated, as was an acquaintance, Shardae Strong, 27, who was visiting from California.

A neighbor alerted them by knocking on the door to their apartment on the first floor, just one floor above the unit on the upper floor, which caught fire, in order to tell the residents to leave.

“When I went to the door, I was struck by a blaze of smoke,” Strong said.

Henry claimed that she had heard no alarms for fire in the complex, and she reported this to an emergency responder.

Both claimed that the two residents of the unit that was above them in the area where the fire first started had recently moved out of the unit.

A woman who claimed to have been a representative of BH Management, based in Iowa, who manages the complex, refused to make any comment.

The complex, which has 320 units, is managed by NexPoint which is based out of Dallas, Texas, according to the county assessor’s website.

“I’m feeling numb right now.”

Another resident who was displaced, Susan Fierro, 59, reported that she was awakened by loud squeaks on her door. She then encountered the smell of smoke that surrounded her as she left her house situated directly under the burnt-out unit.

“My entire life is the city,” said Fierro, who relocated to Las Vegas from Los Angeles in February. She is a cashier at Harry Reid International Airport.

Fierro told firefighters that the ceiling in her home was sunk. She explained that even though her rent was accompanied by an insurance payment for renters but she wasn’t sure whether it covered the property within the apartment.

“I’m still numb,” she said.

In her home, the most important thing was the urn that contained the cremains from her late daughter, Xavier Steen, who was killed in Henderson at the age of 34 in the month of January 2021.

Steen passed away from complications of gunshot wounds on both of his legs, just two weeks after a man who was involved in a crash with Steen in Henderson was believed to have killed Steen. It’s ironic that Marquis White, 29, was arrested last month for Steen’s death.

When Fierro noticed a firefighter walking through, she inquired whether he’d found the urn in her apartment that was waterlogged.

“Not Yet,” an emergency responder replied.