ANDERSON, Ind. (WISH) — Horrific video shows smoke and flames billowing in the air Monday at a massive apartment fire in Anderson.

The fire at 10 a.m. forced about 16 residents to evacuate. 

Neighbor Mary Jo Siefert witnessed the scene. “There were flames. They were real high.”

Arianna Van Horn lived next door to the damage apartments. “Someone started yelling, ‘Fire, fire fire.’”

Van Horn said, “It started on the balcony on the top, right porch. It was just … once I got out there, it started spreading down and back up and then to the roof. … It was one of the most scariest things ever.”

Marlin Braxton rushed home from work after hearing the news. “I come out there and said, ‘Oh, my god, it’s on fire.”

The fire damaged Braxton’s apartment. The only thing the firefighters saved was his high school diploma. Braxon doesn’t have renter’s insurance to cover damages but was grateful. He laughed it off, saying, “The main things is I’m still here.”

The Anderson Fire Department tells I-Team 8 that 30 firefighters from multiple agencies arrived on the scene around 10 a.m. It took them about an hour to stop the fire.

No one was hurt. Firefighters did save three cats that were taken to a nearby veterinary clinic.

The fire damaged eight apartments. A firewall protected another eight units, but residents in those were also evacuated due to water damage. Firefighters did not say what caused the blaze but were continuing to investigate.

Verinita Harris, the assistant property manager at Applecreek Apartments told I-Team 8, “We’re working with the Red Cross to get everybody placed in hotels tonight and then figure the whole thing out.”

Electricity had to be shut down in other units. Mary Jo Siefert depends on oxygen machine. With no power in her apartment, she is left to charge it in her car. “I hope they get the power back because I have oxygen in my home and I have to have power with it. 

Harris from Applecreek Apartments said they were working to get electricity back up in the units by end of the day.