A fire engulfed two apartments Wednesday morning and damaged several others, displacing six residents.

The fire, reported at 11:50 a.m., began in apartment No. 3 of 527 Lincoln Way. It then spread to a neighboring apartment, No. 4, before it climbed to the attic over half of the 12-unit apartment complex.

The tenants will be displaced for a month until electrical wiring and other utilities can be restored, said Arlene Beal, manager of the complex.

No injuries were sustained in the blaze, said Deputy Fire Chief Paul Sandoval of the Ames Fire Department.

Peggy Herndon, 74, lives in apartment No. 5 and has been a tenant for about 25 years. Her apartment suffered moderate smoke damage. Herndon said she did not smell any smoke coming from No. 3’s direction, nor did she hear any smoke alarms go off.

“I didn’t even know there was [a fire],” she said.

Carlos Bentley, 48, said he had gone outside to make a phone call when he smelled some smoke. He said he smelled it right away because he was downwind of the fire.

“[That’s] when everybody started yelling fire,” he said.

Bentley said he was one of three people who called the fire into the Ames Fire Department.

Mike Beal, 60, has lived in the complex for 15 years with his wife, Arlene. Mike also called the fire into the authorities. He said he went outside and did not notice the fire until another man pointed it out to him.

“The flames were right at the door,” he said.

The tenant who lives in apartment No. 3, Danny Gotschall, had been living in the building for three months, Arlene said. He was not in the apartment at the time of the fire.

There was no one living in either of the apartments surrounding No. 3, Arlene said. Several tenants said No. 4 had just been shown the day before the fire.

According to officials from the Ames Fire Department, the fire was determined to be accidental, caused by a high intensity lamp coming in contact with combustible materials.

The fire spread through the attic because the building did not have firestops, Sandoval said. Firestops, found in most modern buildings, are a “wall” that stops fires before the travel too far, he said.

Firefighters cut into the buildings roof to stop the flames before they got past Herndon’s apartment, No. 5. Herndon said she was not worried about damage to her home.

“They told me ‘you might have a lot of clean up [to do],'” she said. “I’ve done it before I can do it again.”

Don Simmons, 42, has lived in the complex for 11 years. He said he was listening to Rush Limbaugh on his computer when firefighters knocked on his door and told him another apartment was on fire.

His main concern was damage to his apartment, No. 12.

“I hope they stop the fire in the roof [so my] apartment will be OK,” he said, as the firefighters works against the blaze.

Arlene said the apartment had gotten significant remodeling in the last three to four months. It had received new carpeting and tiles, new fixtures and had been painted, she said. It was the only apartment that had been remodeled so far.

Damage to the building is estimated at $80,000.

The Ames Chapter of the American Red Cross is assisting the displaced tenants with housing until the building can be reoccupied.

“At least it happened on a nice day,” Simmons said.