PORTLAND — Firefighters in Maine's largest city are battling an apartment house fire that a neighbor says was started by children playing with sparklers.

City officials say everyone made it out of the building to safety late Monday morning, but thick plumes of smoke could be seen from downtown as firefighters battled the blaze.

The Portland Press Herald  quotes a neighbor, Melissa Trott, as saying kids caused the fire by trying to light fireworks using a toaster oven. The newspaper reports the fire left three families without a place to stay.

A city spokeswoman declined to discuss the cause of the fire. Congress Street was closed as firefighters doused the blaze in the building across the street from the Eastern Cemetery.