LAWRENCE — Jasmine Hernandez didn't even know her Bailey Street home was on fire yesterday morning until someone pounded on the door and told her to leave.
"I was getting ready for bed and had gone to the kitchen to turn the light off," she said. "On the way back to my bedroom, someone knocked on the door and told us to get out."
Hernandez, 34, grabbed her children and blankets, and rushed for the door of her first-floor apartment at 183 Bailey St., just five doors down from the Bailey Street fire station.
She never smelled smoke until after opening the door.
"What I actually smelled was a skunk," Hernandez said. "When I opened the door, there was already smoke in the hallway."
She said the fire began on the top, right side of the building. The blaze broke out shortly after midnight, destroying the apartment house and leaving 23 people homeless. Nobody was injured.
Hernandez said she and her husband, Jose, and their four children are staying with relatives in Lowell, but will soon begin searching for a new apartment in Lawrence.
Of those left homeless, some were put up at the Comfort Suites in Haverhill by the Merrimack Valley chapter of the American Red Cross or are staying locally with family or friends.
The fire was a bitter birthday present for Diomedes Ortiz, 41, of Lynn, the building's owner.
Ortiz, who celebrated his birthday Tuesday, said he bought the building four years ago and that it is insured.
"Right now, I don't know what happens," Ortiz said yesterday morning as he stood on the sidewalk across the street from the fire-ravaged building.
Investigators from the state fire marshal's office joined Lawrence officials yesterday as they sifted through the ruins.
They used a dog trained to detect the scent of flammable liquids that might have been used to start the blaze, but fire Chief Peter Takvorian said the dog had not found anything.
The roof was gone and two dormers in front appeared as though they might tumble to the ground in a brisk wind.
The second and third floors were destroyed, and the house is considered too unsafe to allow anyone in to retrieve whatever possessions remain.
"We want to get the place razed as soon as possible," Takvorian said. "It is a collapse hazard."
Deputy fire Chief Jack Bergeron said Deputy Chief Brian Murphy told him that within five minutes of the first fire crew's arrival, the building started to collapse.
"People always underestimate how quickly a fire will develop," Bergeron said. "There are a lot of concealed spaces and you could have a fire in progress for quite some time and not even realize it."
He said investigators still have a lot of interviews to conduct before determining the cause, "so it's going to be some time, unless someone drops a bombshell — you never know."
Firefighters entered the building after receiving reports there was someone still inside, Bergeron said.
That part of Bailey Street was cordoned off and remained closed to traffic yesterday as investigators worked in the rubble.
"It's really not safe to walk by," said Lawrence police Detective Brian Burokas.
Takvorian said the initial response to the fire couldn't have been much quicker.
"People came over to Engine 9 on Bailey Street, just a couple of doors down, and knocked on the door, rapped on the windows, rang the doorbell, and pulled the hook to the master alarm," he said.
"And at about the same time, there were 911 calls coming in. So the crew (Engine 9) definitely realized they had something to go to. This showed another advantage of having a neighborhood firehouse," the chief said.
With the loud sound of a woman weeping hysterically — a noise that could be heard over the police scanner, firefighters conducted an immediate search of the first two floors of the building.
A large crowd of more than 100 people gathered in front of the burning house, some worrying whether friends were trapped inside.
The woman eventually stopped crying after learning her baby was safe.
"We were happy that everybody was accounted for and nobody was hurt. That's the one blessing and positive you can count on at the end of the night," Takvorian said.
Staff writer Mark E. Vogler contributed to this report.
