Two Auburn families will be staying with friends and family members after fire destroyed their homes in the 800 block of R Street Northeast on Wednesday morning.

All occupants escaped injury, but one family’s cat and pet rat perished.

A passerby called 911 at 7:13 a.m. to report a duplex on fire at the Riverside Village. Valley Regional Fire Authority firefighters were on the scene within three minutes to find heavy smoke and flames coming from two duplex units. The occupants of the two units, three adults and two teenage children, already had evacuated safely and were waiting across the street.

VRFA and Kent Firefighters quickly extinguished the flames, containing the fire to two of the four duplex units in the involved building, but those two units were destroyed. One adjacent four-plex building received moderate heat and smoke damage, but remains habitable.

Two adults, a male and a female, lived in the first duplex unit that caught fire. The second duplex unit destroyed by fire had been occupied by a mother, her 16-year-old daughter, her 18-year-old son and their pets.

As of late Wednesday morning, fire investigator remained on-scene working to determine a cause and damage estimate.