Residents were evacuated from a four-level apartment complex early Monday in the Westlake district when a fire broke out in a third-floor unit.
Paramedics treated a woman for smoke inhalation at the location. No other injuries were reported.
"I was dead asleep and I woke up to blood-curdling screams," said Tanya Estrada. "People were running for their life. This plume of smoke just filled the hallway.
The fire at 511 South Park View Street was reported at 3:37 a.m. After Estrada awoke to screams and smoke alarms, she looked through the peephole of her third-floor unit's door.
"Everything was just black," she said. "I could feel the door, and it was hot."
That's when Estrada called 911. She heard firefighters coming down the hallway a few minutes later.
"I was just trying to keep it together," Estrada said.
Firefighters told her a candle started the fire, Estrada, whose unit was not damaged, said. Fire officials said the cause remained under investigation, but that there were no signs the fire was intentionally set.
Flames were confined to the third-floor unit after more than 80 firefighters responded to the location. The fire was knocked down in about 40 minutes.
A cause has not been determined.
