A solvent used to repair a kitchen floor caught fire in a Lansing apartment Tuesday morning, triggering a blaze that displaced residents and left a four-unit building uninhabitable.

Firefighters were called to 18207 Locust St., about 9:20 a.m. after fire broke out in a downstairs apartment, Lansing Fire Chief Dan Gregorovic said.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze within 10 minutes. While the fire didn't reach the second floor, the building sustained smoke damage throughout, Gregorovic said.

Department officials contacted the American Red Cross, which set up living arrangements for one of the building's residents, Gregorovic said. The others occupants had places to stay, he said.

While it's inconclusive what sparked the blaze, Lansing Fire Department Investigator Jim Perreault said, vapors from acetone ignited in Mary Healey's kitchen, where a contractor had begun to put in a new floor.

After opening a window to help with ventilation, Healey turned on a fan to blow the fumes outside.

"The next thing I remember were the flames," said Healey, who lost her cat in the fire and credited Lansing police officer Dan Powers and his wife for helping in the aftermath.

One resident, Mary Belcher, had to race home from her job at a Sauk Village doctor's office to survey the damage and check on her three children who were home at the time in the other downstairs apartment.

Belcher was able to save the urns containing the ashes of her mother and father. Her 15-year-old son, Devin, helped direct firefighters and people outside to residents who were still upstairs, including Paola Saldivar and her 2-year-old son.

Saldivar had just brought her son breakfast when she heard screaming and found smoke coming in through two entrances to her apartment, which forced them out the front window.

"We didn't have no other way to get out," said Saldivar, who had lived in the building for about three months.

Brenda Johnson, a resident of the upstairs apartment on the north side of the building, her daughter and two granddaughters had to jump from the upstairs apartment and were helped by those on the ground.

"I've heard of people being displaced by fire before, but I never knew what it felt like," said Johnson who had lived in the building since April and worked as an elementary school teacher for 34 years in Chicago Heights. "That was a terrifying scene up there."

The apartment was on fire when fire crews arrived, and flames were blowing out the east side of the building, Gregorovic said. Two people were treated at the scene but refused transport to the hospital, he said.