GENOA - Firefighters from Tompkins and Cayuga counties battled a blaze Monday morning that broke out in an apartment and damaged a storage barn in Genoa on state Route 34.

According to fire officials, the fire started at approximately 9 a.m. in an apartment on the property, which is located at the far southern end of Cayuga County.

The cause is still under investigation, but Genoa Fire Department Deputy Chief Josh Nalley said it is believed to have been started by a portable heater.

Three people - a mother and her two children - had been living in the apartment, and all three made it out without injury, fire officials said.

Officials from more than 20 fire departments

assisted at the scene, including crews and equipment from Aurora, Locke, Moravia, Scipio, Lansing and Owasco. A thick plume of white and black smoke could be seen for miles as firefighters doused the flames through the morning.

The building is owned by H and H Paving Stone and Oil, but had once been a chicken farm operated by Adam Baum Egg Farms. The building where the fire started is a former barn used to store equipment, H and H Paving co-owner Bettie McLaughlin said. Part of the barn had also been converted into the living space, she said.

McLaughlin said they also lost a motor home, a boat and a vehicle in the fire.

Firefighters were able to save the portion of the building that is used by the business as a shop, said McLaughlin, who arrived at the location just after 9 a.m.

“We were trying to throw equipment (out of the building), but they did a good job saving the shop, and everyone was okay,” McLaughlin said.