Fire Destroys 6 Apartments in Laguna Hills : Blaze: Eighteen people are left homeless after flames erupt in a ground-floor unit. No one is injured.

A three-alarm fire of unknown origin gutted six apartments, damaged four others and left 18 people homeless Saturday.

Among those rescued from the Pinebrook Apartments at 24549 Los Alisos Blvd. was a four-foot iguana, a large reptile kept as a pet, said Kathleen Cha, spokeswoman for the Orange County Fire Department.

No one was injured in the 11:09 a.m. blaze, which started in a ground-floor unit in one building of the 360-unit complex. “The fire burned up to the apartment above, then into the attic, and spread from there,” Cha said. “It had spread by the time our crews arrived.”

More than 60 firefighters battled almost two hours to extinguish the flames, which, thanks to the rain, didn’t leap to nearby buildings in the same complex, Cha said.

Several residents not home at the time of the fire returned to find they were without shelter, Cha said.

The cause of the blaze was under investigation, and no damage estimates were available, Cha said.

Red Cross spokeswoman Judy Iannaccone said the families displaced by the fire would be given temporary shelter in nearby motels.

“It’s been a tough year for the Red Cross, disaster-wise,” she said. “We budgeted $135,000 for disaster relief for the (fiscal) year ending June 30, but we’ve already spent more than $190,000.”

Iannaccone said anyone wishing to assist the Red Cross financially should contact the volunteer relief agency at P.O. Box 11364, Santa Ana, Calif. 92711.