SUNDERLAND, MA (WGGB/WSHM) -- Dozens of people are homeless after a large fire burned through an apartment building in Sunderland Saturday morning.

The three-alarm fire at Sugarloaf Estates began shortly after 1:15 a.m. Saturday. Investigators believe a kitchen fire sparked the blaze, according to Sunderland Deputy Fire Chief Mike Zeoli. Flames and smoke spread quickly, forcing a response from 16 departments. “There were two apartments that had fire damage and there were probably nine apartments that had smoke and water damage because by putting the water on the apartments on the top floor, it went through to the lower apartments and also the extension to the other apartments,” he explained.

The fire left a gaping hole in the middle of the building. The entire building has been condemned, leaving nearly four dozen residents trying to salvage what they could. Michael Gifford, a senior at UMass Amherst, had been living in his Sugarloaf Estates apartment with friends for nearly two years. “It’s been difficult not knowing how much of our stuff is safe. We’ve only been able to salvage so much,” he noted.

His roommate, UMass alum Alexia Minkin, was in bed when the fire broke out. “The first thing we did was grab our cat, Milo. We put him in a laundry basket with a blanket over it and just ran outside. We thought that it was just like a fluke, like it was not a fire by any means until I was watching and I was like ‘that’s a lot of smoke,’” Minkin explained.

Gifford’s and Minkin’s apartment was among those with water damage.

The incident comes a little more than five months after a massive fire destroyed Olympia Place in neighboring Amherst. For residents affected by the Sunderland fire, it felt like history repeating itself. “I drive past Olympia once a week. It really is déjà vu going on Facebook and any social media and seeing companies around the area creating GoFundMe’s or just GoFundMe’s in general and all of the news about it, pictures of different angles from each police station, each fire station,” Minkin said.

Zeoli said the department applied lessons from past fires. “Every fire I fight, every call I go to brings back memories of the other calls and what we do is we bring back all of the training that we got in what we’ve seen to try to make each call better and, with this call, we learned from our training and what we’ve done in the past. It did a good stop on this fire,” he noted.

No people or pets were injured in the fire. “This could have been so much worse. I’m glad at least there were fire alarms. People were alerted and everybody got out safely,” Gifford said.

Sugarloaf Estates management released a statement and said, “Our team is incredibly grateful for the immediate outreach efforts made throughout the local community thus far. We are thankful no one was harmed and our team has and is continuing to tend to each residents’ needs to secure housing and cater to concerns.”

Several residents are receiving assistance from the Red Cross and other local organizations. Others are being helped by family. The building remains condemned and under assessment.

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