HOUSTON -- Several families were forced out of their apartment homes early Thursday morning when a two-alarm fire burned their northwest Houston complex.

The fire started around a.m. at Hollyview and Antoine.

Arson investigators said an electrical fire in a vacant apartment may be to blame, but they said a safety measure built into the apartments helped slow it down.

Fire stops in the attic prevented the fire from spreading quickly. Several units were engulfed in flames when Houston firefighters arrived, but residents had gotten out safely.

In all, seven families lost their homes.

"Some things are sentimental, and I'm just happy I got my niece and nephews out of that place," resident Syretta Smith said. "Because like I told my niece, everything else you have to just get replaced, but a life can't be replaced. So I'm just glad that they got out of there."

She and her neighbors were put into vacant apartment homes in the same complex.