A two-alarm fire at Merritt Avenue near Brownsville Road gutted a house containing two apartments at around noon today, leaving four people homeless.

Yossy Denhas, whose husband Sukarta As owns the house, said a woman, her daughter and two young grandchildren were renting the bottom floor apartment and had moved in about a month ago.

The younger woman and her children were in the house when the fire started but escaped without injury. The second story apartment was unoccupied.

Deputy Fire Chief Michael Mullen said the fire started in the basement and worked its way up through the structure's interior walls, eventually catching the roof on fire. He said the cause of the fire had not yet been determined.