A small explosion caused a fire at The Villas at La Riviera apartments around 3:10 this afternoon.

The fire originated in the maintenance room of building 7841, and was out before the fire department arrived. The cause is still unknown. 

Gil Lopez, who lives directly above the maintenance room, heard the explosion.

“I was skating in the University Village parking lot and heard an explosion,” resident Alex Stewart said. “Five minutes after, we saw smoke. We had to get the clothes out and other than that, everyone’s fine.”

A maintenance worker was allegedly working in the building, Stewart said, and the explosion happened as the maintenance worker left the building.

“We were inside and felt something like an earthquake,” said the apartment owner and resident Alex Garrido. “It shook the apartment. We looked at each other and ran outside to see what happened. There were two guys behind (our) apartment and we ran in to grab our stuff.”

Stewart said several people helped gather Garrido’s belongings.

Jose Trujillo, one of Lopez’s roommates, said they were moving out in a week, and were supposed to move everything out by Thursday. Trujillo now says they will have everything out by tonight.

This article will be updated as more information becomes available.