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The fire started in a first floor apartment in the 3300 block of Marathon Drive around 9 p.m. Wednesday.

The people who live in the apartment were not home, but their three cats and a small dog were briefly trapped inside.

"The cats were rescued somewhere within the structure, two were rescued, two others fled out the front door," said San Diego Fire Captain James Lang.

A neighbor smelled the smoke and ran outside to help.

"We have a house up the street, I grabbed the garden hose from the house, hooked it up to the hose here and just got up on the porch here and started putting it out, the flames were probably ten feet high," said James McKinney.

Firefighters said a faulty heat source started the fire.

The Red Cross is helping the residents impacted by the fire.