One home is destroyed and two others are damaged in a blaze that broke out Thursday night in a Bloomfield Avenue apartment building.

The fire started at 8:50 p.m. in the front of a second-floor apartment at 215 Bloomfield Ave., according to Fire Chief Joseph McCarthy. The blaze was contained to the one apartment but the two above it, on the third and fourth floors, sustained smoke, water and heat damage, McCarthy said.

The apartments are located above Megna Home Remodeling and Design Center, a bathroom and tile store near Watsessing Avenue.

At around 9 p.m., flames and black smoke were seen pouring from the second-floor apartment as residents, many in pajamas with pets in tow, looked on from across the street on Bloomfield Avenue.

Collette Finn, who lives in the apartment next to the one in which the fire broke out, she left her apartment at around 8:45 p.m. when she was alerted of the fire. She said neighbors in the building had gone door to door ensuring others got out safely.

"I don't know if my bedroom has been burned," said Finn, who was putting her four-year-old daughter to sleep at the time. Finn, her daughter and their dog managed to escape the apartment, located in the back of the complex.

Finn said neither the smoke detector in her apartment nor the one in the hallway had gone off while she was still inside her home.

A section of Bloomfield Avenue, from Berkeley to Watessing avenues, was closed to vehicular traffic Thursday night. Montclair, Nutley and Essex County Office of Emergency Management also responded to the scene.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, McCarthy said. He said it is believed to have started in the living room of the apartment.

The fire chief believed most of the building's residents, except for those living in the three damaged apartments, would be able to return to their homes Thursday night.

No one was injured in the blaze. It is unclear if anyone was home when the fire broke out.

[Editor's note: This story originally published Thursday, Oct. 25. It has since been updated.]