"My first thought was my apartment is on fire," said Jean Smasal, a resident near site of an apartment fire Saturday night.

When she was driving home from work, she could see the tall clouds of smoke filling the air in her neighborhood. The fire came not from her building but the one across the street.

"I was really scared," she said.

As crews begin cleanup, she and other neighbors are getting their first good look at what happened last night.

"Once the firefighters started putting it out it erupted and started going around the whole thing, it was up in the air on top," said Matt Adamski, a nearby resident.

All the while, Randi Klink and her friends were in the building while it was burning. They ran upstairs to try and help put it out before they got out.

"My friend went upstairs and said put a blanket on it, throw water on it and it couldn't be helped so they said call 911," Klink said.

Fire crews returned to the scene to try and find out what went wrong.

"What we'll try and do is go from the area of least burned to the area of most burned," said Michael Laska, a Fire Inspector with the City of Eau Claire.

They have not yet found the cause but they are focusing on an upstairs corner.

"We're still piecing things together," Laska added.

On a street full of apartments, there is also another concern.

"The building behind me that got burned is at 2417 Golf Road. Some people we talked to said they were concerned last night because the apartments on this street are so close together. One person we talked with lives at 2409 Golf Road, which is about 40 footsteps away from the one that caught fire.

"You know if the wind was the other way it could have sparked this one, luckily the apartment on the other side is on the other side of the street," said Zack Merrill who lives in the 2409 building.

It is a shed of luck in an unlucky situation.

"Just think about what they lost, and it's scary, and it could happen to anybody I guess," Smasal added.