GRAND RAPIDS - It happened in the afternoon as some in the apartment complex slept.  But, one woman was able to alert her neighbors, very likely saving lives.

A charred outer wall is the most visible sign of extensive interior damage at the 'Sugar Hills' apartment complex south of Grand Rapids.  When the fire started yesterday at 4:30, Jill Tromubly was getting ready for a Super Bowl party and smelled smoke.

"I was curling my hair," she said. "I thought it was just my curling iron.  But, it got worse."

Jill saw the smoke coming out of a light bulb socket.  After realizing the smoke was filling up the hallway outside her front door, she took action.

"I knocked on everybody's door.  Everyone.  Got 'em out."

Abby Hawkinson was taking a nap next door.

"I was woke up by people screaming in the hallways."

Abby ran out with nothing but the clothes she was wearing.  Everything else was lost.

"It hasn't really hit me yet, to be honest," said Abby.

"I didn't get my cat," said Jill. "She died."

The landlord of the complex says the fire department told him the fire started in a third floor kitchen.  Allegedly, one of the renters forgot to turn off his stove burner when leaving for work.

13 of the 16 units are damaged.  Many of the residents won't be able to return.  And while they're being helped by the Northland Red Cross in the short term... local aid workers say permanent housing will be hard to find.

Says, Val Stevenson of the Salvation Army, "There's a waiting list for low–income and subsidized housing in this area, also."

Stevenson says none of the tenants put out had renter's insurance.