STARKVILLE, Miss. (WTVA) -- Flames burst out of a Starkville apartment complex Friday afternoon as residents scurried to escape.

Emotions were high since the building is a total loss and the fire started just after 1 pm.

Smoke continued to erupt from one building of the Summer Chase Apartments hours after the fire department diminished flames. This was a time for the residents to take a deep breath amid all the afternoon eruption.

"I heard someone beating on my door and I got up to see who it was," said project manager Lynda Woods, who is also a resident at the complex.

"By the time I did that they had kicked my door down and told me to get out there was a fire upstairs."

"It's going to take a minute for it to set in I guess, to really absorb all this. It's kind of hard to swallow at one time," said resident Buster Slayton.

Residents home at the time all managed to escape before the roof and top floor collapsed, but there was one little fellow still inside at the time.

"We actually had a lady that had her dog in there so we made that a priority once we knew there wasn't anyone else in there," said Starkville Fire Marshall Stein McMullen.

Slayton received a call from his wife that their apartment was on fire. That's when his attention immediately turned to the couple's 7-year-old dog, Elvis.

"I knew she was ok because she was talking to me," Slayton added. Then, I asked about our little dog Elvis and she said they had went in and got him."

Elvis suffered some burns from melting plastic of his kennel but he's alive and well thanks to the second-effort of Starkville firefighters.

"I mean they were real heroes to go in there and crawl under a wall that had collapsed. They'd already been in one time and came out the back, then the roof collapsed," Slayton continued.

"Emotions change drastically when you get that pet out," McMullen added. "I mean to her that was her kid."

"Her emotions changed drastically from the time she was worried about the dog to the time our guys brought it back out to her."

While it was an emotional day for those that live in the apartment complex, one resident told us when she was able to get out and see her other neighbors were safe as well, she breathed a sigh of relief because they're all like one big family.

Starkville Fire Department says the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Meanwhile Red Cross representative were on the scene assisting residents.