Fire inside Lake Murray apartment kills at least 5 pets

A midday fire at a Lake Murray-area apartment complex displaced eight residents Wednesday and left at least five pets dead, authorities reported.

The blaze erupted about noon in a ground-floor unit of the two-story building on Navajo Road, just west of state Route 125, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

It took crews roughly 20 minutes to extinguish the flames, which also caused smoke damage to an upstairs unit, Fire-Rescue spokesperson Candace Hadley said.

Firefighters found the bodies of three dogs and two cats in the apartment where the blaze originated, Hadley said. Three other felines remained missing in the mid-afternoon.

The American Red Cross was called in to help the displaced people — four adults and four children, residents of both damaged apartments — arrange for emergency shelter, Hadley said.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.