BREWER – Six people were left homeless after a Sunday morning fire damaged three apartments on Brewer Street.

The cause of the 3:30 a.m. fire that began on the first-floor porch of the apartment building at 10 Brewer St. was under investigation by the state Fire Marshal’s Office on Sunday night.

While the fire was quickly extinguished by firefighters from Brewer, Holden and Eddington, smoke and water destroyed or heavily damaged most of the property inside the apartments, Brewer Fire Capt. Gary Parent said.

The fire began in front of the first-floor apartments of Robert Sherwood and Karen Whitmore, Parent said. Neither Whitmore nor her unidentified boyfriend, who also lived in the apartment, nor Sherwood was home at the time of the fire.

An unidentified woman, however, was housesitting for Whitmore, second-floor resident Jennifer Eckstein said. Eckstein had been in her apartment with her boyfriend, who was not identified, when the sound of the fire woke her.

“I woke up to the crackling of the fire. I thought it was rain or hail,” Eckstein said. “There was a big orange glow outside and the flames were shooting up to the second floor, and I started screaming that there was a fire.”

Eckstein’s boyfriend went downstairs and led the housesitter through a living room window to safety, Eckstein said. The woman had already called the fire department, but the fire was covering the front door to the apartment.

Eckstein’s 9-year-old son, who was not identified, was visiting his grandmother’s house for the night and was not home, Eckstein said. “We are very, very grateful that everyone got out all right,” said Eckstein, who works as a receptionist in the Bangor area.

The Pine Tree Chapter of the American Red Cross is providing housing, food and clothing for Eckstein and her family and Whitmore and her family at a Bangor hotel for the next few days, said Mike Henderson, director of emergency services for the area Red Cross chapter. Sherwood, who returned from a trip to Chicago as officials were examining the scene, is staying with relatives.

While the origin of the fire was unknown, the months between September and December are the time when the Red Cross sees the greatest increase in fires as a result of home heating, Henderson said.

“It’s when the weather gets good and chilly and people start using their furnaces and wood stoves again,” Henderson said. Families need to have furnaces and stoves checked to make sure everything is in working order.

The affected families will likely need to replace nearly all of their belongings, along with moving to new homes, Henderson.

For Eckstein, who moved into the apartment in July, the loss hits particularly hard.

“It’s like a nightmare: Everything’s covered in black and there’s glass everywhere,” Eckstein said. “Times are hard and we don’t just have the money to up and move. I mean, we’re luckier than the families downstairs, they lost so much, it’s just tough.”

To aid any of the families affected by the fire, contact Henderson at 941-2903.