AUBURN – A fire in a four-story apartment building at 369 Main St. early Thursday left 17 people homeless.

There were no reported injuries. Twelve people were evacuated from the building after the fire was called in shortly before 3:30 a.m.

The fire appeared to start in a 16-inch space between the ceiling of the top apartment and the roof, said Fire Prevention Officer Gary Simard.

It may have been caused by an electrical spark, possibly by animals eating through the insulation of wires, he said. The blaze remains under investigation, but Simard said he has ruled out arson. He’ll probably never know the exact cause, he said.

A woman driving along Main Street called 911 to report that smoke was pouring from the eaves of the building. She yelled up at the windows hoping to get the attention of tenants. A man in an apartment on the fourth floor was awakened by the woman.

He helped tenants get out of the building. When firefighters arrived, they cleared the rest of the building, including an elderly woman who was alone in the first floor apartment.

All got out safely, though Scott Breton, a man on the third floor who had surgery recently, was taken to a nearby hospital and treated for smoke inhalation.

His wife, Wanda, said the scene in their apartment was “chaotic” as she tried to get the children in her apartment out of bed and outdoors safely. She made sure they wore shoes and something covering their arms. They left everything else, including their pets. A lizard and fish perished in the fire, she said.

“You couldn’t see much. It was kind of dark,” she said. “You could smell smoke.”

Her 4-year-old daughter “was petrified,” Breton said.

Her husband, who wore a neck brace, had trouble negotiating the steps because he couldn’t look down. A daughter who just given birth had spent the night in the hospital with her husband and baby and was lucky to have avoided the scene, Breton said.

All of the baby’s presents and clothing were lost, she said.

Firefighters allowed Breton back in the building Thursday afternoon. She was only able to take medication, her purse and some pictures, she said.

The owner of the building, Rob LaBarbera of Minot, had been upgrading the building the past couple of years since he bought it, Simard said.

He had installed smoke detectors, a complete fire alarm system and fire doors in the stairwells. “He sunk a lot of money into it to bring it up to code,” Simard said. Those improvements all worked as designed and might have saved lives, Simard said. The second floor, which was vacant, was being renovated, Simard said.

LaBarbera, along with the fourth floor tenants, had insurance. The other families were assisted by American Red Cross.

That agency was putting up Breton’s family at a local motel and gave them money for food, clothing and furniture, she said gratefully. She’ll start looking for another apartment in Auburn, she said.

The fire destroyed the roof and burned down through the apartment on the top floor, Simard said. Tenants in that apartment had been experiencing trouble lately with their circuit-breakers, Simard said. “It could be related,” he said.

Local building inspectors toured the tenement-style building and said the lower floors appeared to be structurally sound.

Apartments on the lower floors were damaged by water and some smoke, Simard said. Some back porches burned.

Firefighters had difficulty fighting the blaze in part because of close high-tension power lines and because the land behind the building drops off quickly to the river, leaving no access from that direction.

Firefighters from Lewiston, Mechanic Falls and Minot assisted.

Power was cut to homes and businesses in the area for about four hours.

Traffic was diverted around the apartment building, but the street was open by late morning.