LEWISTON — Tenants of a three-story apartment building were cleared from their homes late Friday when fire in a basement burned up through the walls and into the upper floors.

Crews from Lewiston and Auburn went to 98 Blake St., near the corner of Blake and Ash streets, where thick smoke began pouring out of the building at about 11 p.m.

One man was arrested after trying to rush back into his apartment on the third floor. 

Fire crews quickly determined that the fire started in the basement, but smoke was billowing from the second-story windows as tenants were ushered outside.

Several people along with their pets were cleared from the building without injury, witnesses said.

The cause of the blaze was not immediately discovered. Fire Chief Paul LeClair said a fire inspector would be called to the scene.

The neighborhood, across from the site of a springtime blaze that leveled two buildings, was blanketed by a haze of foul-smelling smoke. Minutes after fire crews responded, crowds of onlookers began to fill the streets.

“I smelled the smoke from way up on Pine Street,” said one man, who said he came to watch firefighters work.

By 11:30 p.m., the fire was said to be under control. While firefighters smashed out windows and tried to blow smoke out of the building, police were also busy. Several officers rushed toward the burning building at about 11:15 p.m. when it was reported a tenant had tried to run back inside.

The man, whose identity wasn’t immediately available, was chased down and arrested. He was taken to a hospital to be examined for smoke inhalation and was expected to be booked at the Androscoggin County Jail

There was also the matter of onlookers creeping too close to the burning building and with traffic trying to slip through the fire scene. Several intersections were closed, along both Pine and Ash streets, on either side of the fire scene.

An investigation into the cause was expected to begin immediately.