An apartment complex fire closed a section of Virginia Avenue Tuesday afternoon and led to a seven-vehicle collision on Limestone.

Virginia Avenue was still completely closed at 4:40 p.m. from Winnie Street and Press Avenue to South Limestone Street because of a fire at the Bluegrass Commons apartment complex. The building’s address is 165 Virginia Ave.

The fire was in the building furthest west in the complex. Police and fire departments arrived on the scene after getting a call around 2:40 p.m., said Lexington Fire Battalion Chief Harold Hoskins.

A hole was visible in the roof on the right side of the building.

No cause has been determined for the fire, Hoskins said. No residents were hurt, he said, and everyone had self-evacuated before the fire department arrived.

The fire was located in the attic with “nothing but wood to burn,” he said.

Police directed eastbound traffic from Virginia onto Winnie Street and Press Avenue and westbound traffic from Huguelet Avenue to South Limestone. Some lanes remained closed Tuesday evening.

Nursing senior Kody Reed lives about four apartments behind the affected apartment. He said he was sitting in his apartment studying for a Spanish exam when he smelled smoke, which he first thought was from someone else’s burnt food.

A neighbor came to his door and told him to evacuate. He didn’t hear any smoke detectors go off.

“We beat on the door where the fire was; no one answered,” Reed said.

He said he saw fire “jetting out the side of the building” from a vent that had melted.

Hoskins said the smoke detectors might not have sounded because the fire was located in the attic of the building, not a living area.

“I feel bad for the people who live there because they’ve got to get up and go to class,” the day after, Reed said.

He said a lot of students live in the complex, especially medical students because of the apartments’ proximity to the UK hospital.

Psychology graduate student Tim Deckman, who lives in the building that caught fire, was standing across the street with his two cats Tuesday afternoon.

After the flames were contained, he told firefighters that his cats, Assassin and Simba, were still inside. He said they brought the cats out to him about five minutes later.

Hoskins said the fire department got lucky, because a fire was reported around the same time in the 1300 block of Nicholasville Road that turned out to be nothing. The responders at the other fire were able to arrive on Virginia quickly.

He said about 50 firefighters were on the scene.

At around 3:50 p.m., fire officials reported a firefighter had fallen through the floor and suffered what they thought was a minor ankle injury.

Lexington police spokeswoman Sherelle Roberts said a seven-vehicle collision occurred on Limestone after traffic was snarled from Virginia’s closing. The section of Virginia was still closed as of 4:40 p.m.

Hoskins said he does not know when residents will be able to return permanently. He said around 4 p.m. that those in the left side of the building should be able to go in and retrieve their belongings “fairly soon.”

Four apartments were damaged, and Hoskins did not have any estimates on the cost of damage as of Tuesday afternoon.