STERLING – With tears streaming down her cheeks, a tenant who left a lighted candle on her windowsill Monday morning said she thinks that’s what started the fire that damaged her three-story apartment building.

Firefighters responded to the blaze at 406 E. Third St., across from the police station, at 10:30 a.m. The Fitting Room tailor shop is on the ground floor.

No one was hurt.

Lakeisha Herring, 26, lives in a third-floor apartment, where the most damage occurred. She was at her job at McDonald’s in Sterling when the fire ignited, she said as she stood outside the building with her dog, Oreo.

The candle in her window was “the only way it could have started,” she said.

Firefighters said the cause is under investigation. A state fire marshal representative is expected to investigate today, Capt. Randy Ellmaker said.

Herring’s mother, her two children, a niece and a nephew were in the apartment at the time, she said.

Mosi Harris, 36, who has lived on the second floor for about 7 months, said two of his younger children were with him in the house.

“I heard a lot of commotion going on. I didn’t pay any attention,” he said. “A friend called and said, ‘Your building is on fire.’”

He he didn’t pay attention at first because he heard people arguing in the hallway before, Harris said. “I mind my own business.”

Also crying, another tenant, Beth Winstead, worried about her cats. Two were rescued. She was waiting to see if firefighters would get the other two.

She was wearing a coat, but her 24-year-old son, Dustin, feared she wasn’t warm enough. He put his jacket over her, leaving him in just a white T-shirt in near-freezing weather for a little while.

He hugged his mom and held her hand as they approached firefighters to get more information on the fire.

Tina Lira, owner of The Fitting Room, was allowed to walk into the business, which wasn’t damaged. It has been in that building 40 years as of this year.

Olyvia McCombs, 21, the apartment manager, said she had two cats in her apartment. She hoped they survived.

“My windows don’t look black. I take that as a good sign,” she said.

Firefighters later said they believed all pets had been rescued.

Most of the fire damage was limited to Herring’s apartment. Smoke damage was reported in the other apartment on the third floor, and McCombs’ apartment, which is underneath Herring’s, sustained a lot of water damage, Ellmaker said.

Everyone evacuated themselves, but some people tried to get back in, Ellmaker said.

“We had to force some people to leave. I had to get a woman to leave,” he said. “When a building is on fire, you need to get out. When people are trying to get in, we have to take time to stop them. That’s when time is critical.

“A number of people were distraught about their animals. I understand that because I’m a pet owner myself. But our first job is to get people out,” he said.

Sterling and Rock Falls fire departments responded and were on site more than 2 hours.

Afterward, firefighters released the building to the landlord, who is from Chicago.

The building has spaces for two businesses on the first floor, one of which is unoccupied. The second floor has five apartments and the third has two apartments and a storage area.

The American Red Cross-Lincoln Land chapter set up in the Sterling Coliseum, a block away, to help with shelter and victims’ other emergency needs.