ROCKWOOD, Mich. -- Thick smoke billowed from the remains of a Rockwood apartment complex Wednesday after a fire ripped through the building.

Flames tore through the Woodside Village Apartments, located near Interstate 75 and Woodruff Road, in the late afternoon.

"We were terrified. Me and my brother were walking out to go to school and leave my girlfriend when we just heard, 'Fire! Fire,'" resident Shane North said. "My brother just started kicking doors, getting people out and then the whole building just went up. It was 20 minutes and the whole building was just gone."

"I lost everything. Everybody has lost everything," said tenant Fred Madary.

One tenant is grateful to firefighters for saving his cat, Pumpkin. But many other pets died.

"One of the firemen took my house key and went and got her," said Tyler Orman. "She's probably freaking out very bad. I'm just going to get her to a safe place."

No word on the cause of the fire, but witnesses said the flames originated from a second-floor balcony.

The Red Cross is helping with displaced residents.