Four people are without their apartments after a fire started Thursday afternoon at a house at 900 Fifth Avenue NE.

Damages are estimated at $70,000 and the house is presumed a loss, according to the police report. The fire damaged rooms in two of three apartments and a large portion of the roof. No injuries were reported.

The cause of the fire was unknown Thursday evening, said Austin Fire Chief Dan Wilson. Wilson and State Fire Marshal's office are investigating what started the fire.

Around 4:20 p.m., Mark Ekstrand, who lives upstairs and rents out the house, noticed smoke coming from a wall between apartments. He tried calling 9-1-1, but the phone line was dead. He went to a neighbor's house and the resident there called the fire department. Ekstrand was the only occupant in the house at the time, according to police.

The Austin Fire Department arrived at the house near 4:30 p.m. and contained the fire in the south side of the house within 10 minutes, Wilson said. All three shifts were called to the residence.

Wilson thinks the fire may have started in a storage area in the upstairs apartment. Because the house had been added on to, extinguishing the fire was difficult, Wilson said. It started in-between the roof and the ceiling in an area of the building that had varying roof lines.

The firefighters use a device called a cellar nozzle, which distributes water in a circular motion and is able to get to areas a hose cannot.

The fire was extinguished in a little over an hour. The upstairs and a downstairs apartment had fire, smoke and water damage. The front apartment suffered some water damage.

Jonathan Olson, a Mower County prosecutor and part-time firefighter, said the fire was "standard."

"It was just finding the fire, working together, making sure you listen to the commanders," Olson said.

The residents were put up at the Days Inn in Austin.

Cari Quam can be reached at 434-2235 or by e-mail at cari.quam@austindailyherald.com