Photos by Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

Investigators have determined that a Friday morning fire at Cinnamon Ridge Apartments in Roanoke County started in an electrical outlet. The blaze damaged eight units, but residents were not hurt. Another fire began just before midnight Thursday and damaged a commercial building near downtown Roanoke.

Crews from five Roanoke County stations responded to the blaze at Cinnamon Ridge Apartments. One firefighter suffered a minor hand injury. The fire was contained within an hour.

Sherry Lamb slumped against her fiance on a couch in the office of the Cinnamon Ridge Apartments complex in Roanoke County. A Friday morning fire had abruptly jumbled their lives, and the lives of eight other tenants.

Another resident wept quietly nearby.

None was injured.

Suddenly, Lamb sat up straight and her eyes widened. She turned to fiance Brad Hopkins and her voice shook.

"My engagement ring is in there," Lamb said.

"We'll get it," Hopkins said calmly. "We'll get it."

Lamb and Hopkins, who both work at night, were awakened about 9 a.m. Friday by a combination of smoke and a blaring smoke alarm. They called 911 and escaped unharmed with their cat.

"I woke up to the smell of smoke," Hopkins said. "We could hear the fire popping and crackling in the wall."

Investigators later determined the fire started in an electrical outlet located in the wall between two apartments, said Jennifer Conley Sexton, Roanoke County Fire-EMS spokeswoman.

Emergency personnel responded from five Roanoke County Fire & Rescue stations -- Clearbrook, Cave Spring, Vinton, Mount Pleasant and Back Creek. One firefighter suffered what was described as a minor hand injury.

The fire was contained within about an hour.

The blaze was the second of two fires Thursday. A two-alarm fire at a commercial building at Patterson and Campbell avenues near downtown Roanoke started because of a furnace malfunction, and caused about $100,000 in damage, said Roanoke Fire-EMS Deputy Chief Ralph Tartaglia. Crews rescued a black dog from the building, which was otherwise vacant, and a firefighter was sent to the hospital with debris in his eye.

The Cinnamon Ridge complex, on Overland Drive off Starkey Road, has 140 apartments.

Friday's fire occurred in building 5135, a two-story building with eight units. All eight sustained some measure of smoke and water damage, and two had heavy fire damage.

Lamb and Hopkins and eight others were displaced by the fire. Cheryl Argabright, resident manager for Cinnamon Ridge, said the tenants will be housed in vacant apartments throughout the complex.

That news provided some comfort to the engaged couple. But Lamb and Hopkins said they do not have renters insurance and had recently purchased a plasma TV and a laptop computer.

Robert Ramsey, a resident of building 5135, and his girlfriend, Tanya Nunes, were concerned about the three cats inside Ramsey's apartment. Firefighters searched the apartment. One cat bolted out the door and took off, and firefighters recovered one kitten. The third cat wasn't seen.

The Roanoke County Fire & Rescue Department reported that when the first units arrived, heavy smoke and flames were coming from the rear of building 5135.

Battalion Chief Daryell Sexton said firefighters first swept the building to ensure no tenants remained inside and then worked to prevent fire in the attic from burning through the roof.

"When we do apartments like this, it's crucial to get to the attic, because if it spreads through the attic, and we have firefighters in there, it is a recipe for disaster," Sexton said at the scene.

A fire at the complex in October 2006 killed a 71-year-old woman when a short in an electrical cord ignited a fire that spread quickly in a second-floor bedroom. She was on oxygen and mounds of pillow stuffing from her crafts work helped fuel the blaze. Surrounding units were not affected.

On Friday morning, a tenant living in an adjacent building said that he'd fielded a phone call Thursday night from a firefighters association seeking a donation. He said he had contributed.

Staff writer Jorge Valencia contributed to this report.