Jennifer Jacobs hugs her niece Morgan Bates, 7, after Morgan alerted her brother and father about the fire in the apartment above theirs. Their apartment sustained water and smoke damage.

The Providence Journal / Ruben W. Perez

WEST WARWICK — Seven-year-old Morgan Bates was doing homework with her brother in the kitchen of her family’s first-floor apartment at 11 LaChance St. around 3 p.m. Thursday when she smelled smoke and burning plastic.

She climbed onto the kitchen counter and looked out the window. Seeing flames coming from the upstairs apartment, Morgan called to her father, Christopher Bates, who immediately led her and her brother, Brendon, 8, to safety.

The fire heavily damaged the two upper floors of the three-family house at LaChance and East streets, and left heavy smoke and water damage on the first floor.

Brent Robitaille, the building’s owner, said he was returning from work as an English teacher at West Greenwich High School when he saw flames leaping from the second-floor window. He lives on the third floor.

Robitaille said one of the two men who share the second-floor apartment told him he was inside and fled with he smelled smoke and heard a loud popping sound in the porch area.

Fire Chief Joseph Baris said firefighters knocked down the fire in about 15 minutes. He said one firefighter complained of heat exhaustion.

The Rhode Island chapter of the American Red Cross said it was providing accommodations for six of the seven occupants of the building.

Chief Baris said the cause of the fire was under investigation.

rdujardi@projo.com