A fire led to the evacuation of a Commonwealth Ave. apartment complex and several people taken to the hospital with smoke inhalation on June 14.

An apartment on the third floor of 2310 Commonwealth Ave. caught fire at about 7:45 p.m., according to Chief Joe LaCroix. He was on his way home when he heard the call and was the first person at the scene.

He helped people in the apartment escape the heavy smoke, but four were taken to Newton Wellesley Hospital for smoke inhalation and the entire 18-unit building had to be evacuated.

The fire could have been much worse, LaCroix said.

“It was fast-moving but the guys did a great job of knocking it down,” he said. “If it had gotten into the attic, we would’ve lost the whole building.”

Adrianne Kolpak, who lives on the other corner of the building, said she had just gotten home from work when she heard fire alarms. When she went onto the porch to look, a police officer grabbed her arm and told her to get away from the building. But she could see the danger herself.

“You could see flames and black smoke,” Kolpak said. “The firefighters broke through the bedroom window with their ladder and you could see smoke billowing out.”

Bing Liu, who lives on the opposite side of the building from the apartment that caught fire, didn’t pay much attention to initial alarms.

“The fire alarm went off and I thought it was a joke because it happens so many times,” he said.

Weston firefighters assisted Newton in extinguishing the blaze. The cause of the fire is still being investigated, but LaCroix suspected an electrical overload.

“In the corner [where the fire started], there was a plug-in powerstrip melted right to the floor,” he said.