SPOKANE -- An overnight apartment fire in east Spokane left about 40 people without a place to stay Saturday morning.

Fire crews were dispatched to the River Park Apartments at Riverside and Napa at about 2:30 Saturday morning.

"Just came outside and it was engulfed in flames," said Andy Burgess who lived in an apartment below where the fire started.

Burgess said he pulled a fire alarm while another neighbor knocked on doors to get people out.

"She knocked on everybody's door," he said. "She heard crackling, thought wrestling up stairs, she opened her back door and flames started falling down so she came out her apartment and ran upstairs she said by the time she got upstairs it was pitch black inside."

Burgess said a family of five, including three children were asleep inside an apartment on the third floor. He said the neighbor knocked for several minutes until they woke up.

"She saved their lives," Burgess said. "When I [saw] them I was just happy they got out because they could've died because it spread so fast," said another neighbor.

When firefighters arrived, crews immediately began evacuating people from the building through exits and by ladders.

The fire moved quickly through the third floor and the roof of the building. Crews were able to get the fire out quickly by venting the roof, and using water on the inside of the building.

In all, 21 apartment units were deemed temporarily uninhabitable and about 40 people were displaced.

The Red Cross set up a shelter at Stevens Elementary School at 1242 E. 18th Ave. to give people a place to stay until they can go back into the building. As of Saturday afternoon, 10 people were staying at the shelter.

The Spokane Fire Department says the power has been shut off to the building while they investigate a cause. They will also need to look at the structural integrity of the building before they allow anyone back inside.

The apartment owner said he hoped to have at least six families back in their place by tonight and another three next week. The Red Cross will be helping people displaced for as long as it takes to get them back on their feet.

"It's going to be hard trying to get it all back together," said Burgess.