UPDATE: Chesterfield Firefighters Battle Blaze at Apartment Complex

A fire ripped through apartment units Tuesday evening in the 23 Mile and Gratiot area in Chesterfield Township.

, with assistance from crews with New Baltimore, Mount Clemens, Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Lenox and Harrison townships, fought the blaze for slighty more than an hour at Georgetown Apartments. New Haven Fire Department kept the township station running while local crews worked the scene.

No one was injured, but some pets were unaccounted for shortly after the fire was under control.

"We had the wind against us but the Lord on our side," Chesterfield Township Fire Capt. Walter Wilhelm said at the scene.

The township department received the call at 6:13 p.m. that Apartment 17, a corner third-floor unit, was on fire. When they arrived the building had been evacuated. 

"Before our entry crew could even make an entry, the roof collapsed," Wilhelm said, noting the firefighters then fought the blaze "defensively" from the outside.

By 7:21 p.m., the fire was declared under control, he said.

A resident of the apartment complex, 41-year-old Carolyn Knebler, was inside the building when the fire started.

“I smelled smoke and went out into the hallway,” Knebler said. “And as I went into the hallway, a girl was yelling, ‘Fire! Fire!...I could feel the heat on my face.”

Knebler, who lives underneath the unit where the blaze apparently started, said she knocked on doors and tried to get everyone out of the building.

“Everyone seemed to be fine,” she said. However, her entire unit was destroyed. "I have no place to go."

American Red Cross responders were expected to be on the scene while the apartment management also was looking for vacant units for displaced tenants.

Tenant Tamara Krzycki, whose unit was not affected by the fire, said she was taking in her friend Knebler and tenants in another unit for the night.

Krzcyki, 37, and fellow tenants who watched firefighters extinguish flames said they questioned whether a window air conditioning unit they believe was faulty sparked the fire.

Wilhelm said the complex is up to code to his knowledge.

Township Supervisor Michael Lovelock came to the complex Tuesday evening and is friends with the manager, who was not immediately available for comment, said the buildings are up to code.

"It is an older set of apartments," Lovelock said.

Fire officials say the cause of the fire is unknown at this early stage. It is estimated that at least $1 million in damages occurred.