SHARPSVILLE, Pa. (WKBN) — Residents from an apartment complex in Sharpsville are taking shelter today after the building caught fire yesterday evening.

Fire and police crews were called to the Wade Mertz Apartments on South Mercer Avenue when residents noticed a room on the eighth floor was in flames.

According to a resident, a knocked-over candle set an oxygen tank on fire, but the State Police and the State Fire Marshal are still investigating the cause.

Tod Tomack, a resident of the Wade Mertz Apartments heard a fire alarm go off in his building just before 9 in the evening. One room on the eighth floor had caught fire.

“I walked outside and looked up on the eighth floor and it looked like somebody just dropped a bomb out on the roof,” Tomack said.

Tomack is the fire captain of the fifth floor, and responded quickly to the flames.

“I’m the fire captain of the fifth floor, I helped people get out,” Tomack said. “So what I tried to do is pound on the doors and get people out then I got down the fire escape.”

Sharpsville Police say the fire was contained with the help of the sprinkler system and the police and fire department’s quick response time.

Shortly after the fire department arrived, the American Red Cross was called to help open a shelter. Residents were displaced to Sharpsville Area Elementary School’s Gymnasium.

“There were 102 people that were originally evacuated to the school,” said Geoffrey Domowicz of disaster services program and the American Red Cross. “At about midnight, we displaced 50 additional more people.”

Around 2 a.m. Saturday morning an additional 36 residents were still in need of shelter and spent the night at the school.

On Monday, tenants can gather personal belongings from their rooms and speak with the property manager about future housing until repairs to the building are made.

Residents from the Wade Mertz apartments are overwhelmed, upset and concerned about where they will be living for, possibly, the next several months.

“We might be in a motel until spring and its very very very very upsetting,” Tomack said.

“We are currently working with the property manager to move those folks from this building as a shelter into hotels,” Domowicz said.

One person was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.