LEWISTON – Tenants scrambled from their burning homes Tuesday night when fire roared through a three-story apartment house at Union and Oak streets.

For nearly 90 minutes, firefighters battled the blaze not knowing if anyone had been trapped inside by the fast-moving flames.

In the end, eight people from six apartments were accounted for. Each of them was left homeless by the 8 p.m. blaze but no serious injuries were reported.

One woman who lives on the first floor struggled to flee the building with two babies as her boyfriend ran down from nearby 7-Eleven to help her.

Other tenants ran down smoke-filled stairwells as flames spread from the upper floor into the roof of the building. They ran onto Oak Street frantically searching for friends or relatives who live in the building, witnesses said.

“There was some young kid screaming at the top of his lungs because he didn’t know if everyone got out,” said 42-year-old Denise Benoit, who was walking her dog near the building at 14 Union St. at the time. “People were running everywhere. It was horrible.”

Witnesses said the fire appeared to have started in a third-floor apartment facing Union Street, shattering windows and sending flames through the roof.

“I saw a big, orange glow up there in the window and then the glass just blew out,” Benoit said. “Flames just started going everywhere.”

Police and fire officials at one point were told that at least one tenant may be trapped inside the tenement. As firefighters attacked the flames, police officers entered the lower floors of the building, searching for anyone left inside.

“When we got here, we were able to check the basement, the first and the second floors,” said Lewiston police Sgt. David St. Pierre. “We found one man on his way out.”

Flames meanwhile, roared through the third floor, where two apartments are situated. Police and fire officials learned that one of those apartments was vacant. In the other – the apartment where the fire was believed to have started – a man lived by himself, officials said.

Officials searched for that man for more than an hour as the fire was being battled. It was later learned the man had not been home when the fire started.

The building that burned is located behind the 7-Eleven store on Main Street. Within minutes, intersections along Oak, Union and Main streets were clogged with onlookers.

Jenny Cote, an 18-year-old who lives a short distance from the fire scene, said she saw smoke from the fire before fire crews began to arrive.

“I saw the smoke and came running down,” she said. “When I got here, the flames were just starting to come through the side of the building. Now it’s burning right through the roof.”

While police and fire crews struggled to learn about occupants of the burning building, more than 200 onlookers watched from behind police tape. Some ate ice cream or drank coffee from businesses near the scene.

Affected by the firefighting efforts were employees from Central Maine Medical Center, which maintains a parking lot across the street from the burning tenement. Because the lot is circled by a fence, employees trying to leave for the day were unable to exit until the blaze was brought under control and firetrucks moved.

The Salvation Army set up its relief van in the area at about 8:30 p.m. They were gathering information on the buildings occupants and preparing to find them clothes and lodging for the night.

The fire was considered under control by 9 p.m. Fire inspectors Paul Ouellette and Pete Morrell were preparing to enter the gutted building to begin searching for a cause. They were expected to remain at the scene into Wednesday morning.

The evening blaze tapped the energy of firefighters already recuperating from an earlier fire on Hillview Lane. That blaze was believed to have been caused by a barbecue grill.