More than a hundred people who live inside a Sharpsville apartment building are wondering where they'll be living over the next couple of months.

A fire damaged the eight story high structure on Friday.

The blaze started in an apartment on the top floor of the Wade D. Mertz Towers on South Mercer Avenue. 

According to Sharpsville's fire chief, a tenant in that apartment told police she dropped a candle on her couch and it quickly got out of control.
She suffered burns on her hand and hip but was released from the hospital that night.

While that apartment was gutted, nearly every apartment on that floor suffered smoke damage and then every apartment in the entire building suffered water damage due to fire hoses and the tower's sprinkler system which was activated.

While all 102 residents managed to escape the building it may be some time before they are allowed to move back in. They are concerned about when they will be able to move back into the building, that's because they are speaking from experience. there was a fire here on the 4th floor back in 2014 and it took six months just for them to repair those four floors. Now they have 8 floors to repair.

The majority of the residents are now staying with family members but around 30 are being put up in local hotels courtesy of the American Red Cross.
Messages left with the building's owner, Ludwig and Company, were not returned as of 5pm Monday.

The fire chief says the owner will need to get structural and electrical engineers to inspect the building before any repairs can be made.