It now appears that a big fire at a Southwest Houston apartment complex was started by a child who set his brother on fire.

Arson investigators with the Houston Fire Department say a 5-year-old used a lighter to set fire to his sleeping brother's shirt.

The flames spread quickly through a common attic at the Coral Gables Apartments on Beechnut.

The 2-alarm fire gutted an entire building, leaving eight families homeless.

The building was demolished after fire crews got the blaze under control.

The brother was taken to the hospital with second-degree burns on his stomach.

Two firefighters were also treated at area hospitals.

The boy who started the blaze was referred to the fire department's fire stopper program.

His mother, Giovanni Banks, said she lost everything in another fire three weeks before the Beechnut fire.

"If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any at all," Banks said. "I'm still, as you can see, in a state of shock so I'm just dealing with it as it comes."

It's not clear how the earlier fire started.