A kitchen fire damaged a duplex-style apartment house in south Roanoke County on Sunday afternoon and displaced two families, authorities said.

According to Roanoke County Fire and Rescue spokeswoman Jennifer Conley-Sexton, the blaze started about 4 p.m. in an apartment in the 1700 block of Elbert Drive. She said the cause of the fire was a pot of oil left unattended on a stove.

Crews from Cave Spring, Clearbrook and Fort Lewis responded.

"Fire had extended to the attic and charred power lines," Chief Rodney Ferguson said. He said the blaze was under control in approximately 20 minutes.

Conley-Sexton said no one was injured but that the apartment had extensive fire, smoke and water damage. The adjoining apartment had smoke and water damage.

Vickie Houseman, also of that block, said the woman who lives in the unit where the fire started got her daughter and ran to Houseman's house to call 911.

"Her main concern was her daughter," Houseman said. "There was so much smoke in there you couldn't see anything."

Houseman said she asked a Western Virginia Water Authority employee who was working nearby to alert the occupants of the adjacent unit.

"I was on my couch asleep, and my son was in his bedroom," said neighbor Kevin Stuart, who was awakened and told of the fire. "We got out."

According to Conley-Sexton, the woman in the apartment where the fire had started was displaced and was being taken care of by the Red Cross. She said Stuart and his family were also displaced, but she did not know their whereabouts.

On Sunday night, the extent and cost of the damage was still under investigation.