AUBURN — About a dozen people scrambled from their homes Friday afternoon as flames tore through an apartment house at the corner of Pleasant and Court streets.

No one was hurt in the blaze. Tenants escaped their burning homes with half a dozen dogs and cats, although at least one cat was left behind.

The cause was still being investigated Friday night.

The fire at 67 Pleasant St. was reported at about 1:40 p.m. Several witnesses reported seeing fire on all floors of the three-story building, including at the street level where flames blew across a Court Street sidewalk.

“There were flames coming right out that door,” said Sarah Gumprecht, pointing to the single door at street level.

At the same time, Gumprecht said, fire and thick smoke could be seen in windows on the second floor of the building.

Sandy Goodman saw the same thing. She had been at home on Library Avenue when she saw smoke pouring from the apartment house a block away.

“By the time we got here, flames were shooting out the door,” Goodman said.

“When I got here, the door was on fire,” said a Portland man named Stacey, “and there was smoke coming out of that second-floor window.”

One teen, clad in shorts and sandals and carrying a backpack, said he came home from school to discover that his apartment was on fire.

Others huddled with their dogs and cats along a shaded section of Pleasant Street, watching firefighters battle the flames.

One woman sobbed on a sidewalk: Her dog had made it out of the building, friends said, but her cat had not.

The local chapter of the American Red Cross later in the day was providing help to the 14 people from seven families left homeless by the blaze.

Fire crews from Lewiston and Auburn responded. Firefighters who first entered the building reported finding fire on the second and third floors.

Police blocked several intersections to traffic, including a stretch of Court Street from Spring to Turner streets. The road remained closed until around 5:30 p.m. as crews battled persistent flames.

An hour after the fire was first discovered, thick smoke continued to pour from the eaves of the building and crews continued to find pockets of fire. Firefighters attacked the flames from all sides and cut holes in the roof to ventilate the building.

Later in the day, Auburn fire investigators were joined by officials from the Office of the Maine State Fire Marshal in a search for the cause.

According to city tax records, the building contains seven apartments and is owned by a property management company in Scarborough.

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