By Christopher Williams,Staff Writer

AUBURN – A two-alarm fire police called “suspicious” gutted the top floor of a four-story apartment building Tuesday night, leaving several families homeless.

Police reported no injuries. They were investigating the possibility of arson, said police Lt. Scott Watkins.

Flames shot from the roof more than 20 feet into the night sky surrounded by billowing smoke. Plumes of smoke poured through the fourth floor windows as dim lights from firefighters’ lanterns could be seen through the darkened windows of the floor below.

The top floor of the building’s ell was completely engulfed in flames, its roof already gone, less than a half-hour after the fire was called in at 8:40 p.m. at the corner of Main and Newbury streets.

Fire crews trained hoses on the blaze from two ladders and truck-top water cannons, and sprayed water from street level.

Main Street was closed for blocks. Neighbors clustered on the cordoned-off sidewalks in the chilly air.

Tenants in the building said a couple had been fighting in the fourth-floor apartment for at least an hour, then were seen leaving at the time smoke was spotted pouring from the windows.

Jeannette Conception, who lived on the third floor and is eight months pregnant, said she had knocked on the door of the apartment above hers to complain because she had her young nieces, ages 8 and 4, staying with her.

The couple was making so much noise that Conception’s ceiling was shaking and showering debris. A man who appeared drunk threw something at her from his door, she said. She called the building’s landlord and was told, “Let it pass.”

About a half-hour later, she said she heard a woman screaming to evacuate the building. She moved in a month ago, she said. She doesn’t know where she will stay now, she said.

“I have no idea,” she said.

A couple who lived on the third floor had been in their apartment with their 6- and 4-year-old children when they fled the building. The woman was shaking and crying as she stood on the sidewalk.

Sue Cutting, who lives behind the building on Newbury Street, said she heard people fighting in the apartment. Her boyfriend went next door to check on the fight and came back saying the building was on fire.

They called 911, then her boyfriend and another man went into the apartment building banging on doors and warning tenants to get out. Cutting said she stood on her deck and hollered for people to evacuate.

Melissa Rosa, who watched firefighters battle the blaze, said she had lived in the building for 13 years.

“There’s a lot of riffraff in there,” she said. The man who leased the fourth-floor apartment was in the hospital at the time of the fire, she said.

Lt. Watkins said a local detective and an official from the State Fire Marshal’s Office were questioning tenants and neighbors about the fire. They are looking into the possibility that the fire was deliberate, he said. As of 11:30 p.m., police had made no arrests and had not detained anyone, he said. He said the Red Cross was working with the police department at the scene.

Firefighters were still on the scene shortly before midnight.

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