The fire broke out around 3:15am at the Camden Station apartments on Antoine near Veterans Memorial.
The fire is out and while no one was hurt, several families were displaced.
Flames were already jumping 20 to 30 feet in the air when firefighters arrived. One resident, who was too shaken to appear on camera, could only watch as his home was destroyed by flames.
"We couldn't get nothing from the apartment. We ran away," said the resident.
"You barely got out?" we asked.
"Yes, we're safe, thank God," he said.
He had only moments to leave, telling us he shot some cell video just minutes after escaping danger.
"The police, the fire department, too, they kicked the door out and they tried to tell us to get out of the apartments, but after 10 minutes, everything caught on fire," said the resident.
Officials say the fire appears to have started in the laundry room. Both that room and a gas meter were on fire when they arrived. The fire then jumped to the apartment units.
Resident Mark Frederick says he put his children's school clothes in the wash and came back just 20 minutes later to find trouble.
"We weren't really thinking until we saw all of the fire trucks and the first thing I thought about was my kids' school clothes burning," Frederick said.
No one was seriously injured, and that's all some residents have left to focus on.
"Everybody's OK. Thank God nothing happened to anybody else," said a resident.
At least four units were destroyed. The rest of the units in that building suffered water and smoke damage.
At least one firefighter suffered heat exhaustion and was treated at the scene.
