NORWAY – An early afternoon fire heavily damaged a Cottage Street apartment house Tuesday and displaced seven tenants.

None of the four adults and three children were home when flames erupted in the two-story building at 24 Cottage St., said Harvey Solomon of Norway, whose New Horizon Capital Investment owns the property. A fourth unit was vacant, he said.

The cause of the fire has not been determined, Assistant Fire Chief Dennis Yates said, but an investigator from the state Fire Marshal’s Office was called to the scene.

The fire began in the kitchen of the first-floor apartment of Annette Parker and her two children, Solomon said.

Others living on the first floor were a man and his young daughter, whose names Solomon did not have available Tuesday night. On the second floor were Henderson Gonzales and Amanda Marston, both adults who shared an apartment, he said.

Yates said the fire call came in around 12:30 p.m., shortly after firefighters had been dispatched to an oil spill on the Lake Road.

A neighbor across Cottage Street reportedly called in the blaze, an official said.

Firefighters from Norway, Paris, Oxford, Waterford, Mechanic Falls, Poland, Buckfield and Harrison responded to the scene, along with the Norway Police Department, Central Maine Power Co. and Pace Ambulance.

Assistant Chief Jim Tibbetts said the fire traveled from the first floor to the second and then to an attached two-story barn, which was empty.

Several people from the neighborhood gathered to watch firefighters battle the smoky blaze. Firefighters later cut a hole in the roof to vent the smoke and hot gases, and tore out an attic vent to spray water into the house.

“I don’t think it’s a total loss,” Yates said. “There’s heavy damage.”

“Annette’s apartment is totally destroyed,” Solomon advised after viewing it with his insurance adjuster. “Each apartment has a lot of water damage.”

He said the adjuster will return Wednesday to continue the assessment.

“It’s pretty well a total loss because of water,” the owner said.

Solomon said the apartment house, which he purchased 14 months ago, had hard-wired smoke detectors as well as carbon monoxide detectors.

Occupants of two of the units were relocated to other apartments Solomon owns in Norway and Paris, he said. The American Red Cross was providing vouchers for lodging as well, he said.

Solomon said donations to the fire victims may be made at New Horizon’s office at 180 Main St. in Norway. Needed are household items and clothing. For more details, contact New Horizon at 743-2240.