Several families were forced out of their homes Saturday evening after an apartment complex in Lomita caught fire, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

The structure fire was reported just before 7 p.m. at an apartment complex on the 2100 block of Palos Verdes Drive. There, a three-alarm blaze ripped through several units before firefighters were able to knock it down.

“I’m just afraid to go back in there and see the damage that has been done,” said Joanna Jones-Reed, who lives in the complex.

The resident said she noticed something was amiss when she noticed smoke coming from a few doors down her unit.

“The smoke is coming out like crazy because the attic caught fire,” she said. “The fire spread to the top of the units. I don’t know if it went down or into the inside.”

According to the fire department, the blaze posed a challenge to crews due to the proximity of each apartment.

“You are always going to have a difficult situation with multi-unit dueling with shared walls and shared rooms because it’s easier to spread from one unit to another,” said Craig Little of the LA County Fire Department.

Thankfully, no injuries were reported in connection with the fire. It is unclear what started the blaze.