A tri-plex caught fire Friday night in south Minneapolis, displacing eight adults, five children and a cat.

Fire crews responded to the home along the 3700 block of First Avenue South just before 11:30 p.m., according to a press release from Assistant Fire Chief Melanie Rucker.

The callers reported a basement fire and that an “electrical cord exploded,” Asst. Chief Rucker wrote.

All residents made it out safely. The family told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS they made the difficult decision to put down the family cat “Whiskers” given the extent of his injuries following the fire.

Fire crews were able to extinguish the fire, which was contained to the basement lower level of the tri-plex, according to the press release.

However, the home “was deemed uninhabitable due to the smoke, fire and water damage,” displacing all 13 residents.

Displaced resident Samantha Rios told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS it was a multi-generational home where she’s lived since she was born.

“There’s three floors, so my grandma in the middle, and then my aunt and my mom upstairs, and then me in the basement where the fire started,” Rios said.

“It sucks. It’s terrible. It’s like, your whole life you live here, and now all of the sudden, it’s just gone within minutes.”

Rios and other members of the Campos family were hauling some salvageable belongings from the home off to a hotel on Saturday.

Rios said neighbors have been “super helpful,” and so has the Red Cross, which was called to assist the displaced adults and children.

The Red Cross set them up with a hotel for now, but the family was unsure where they would go next, as they said it’s expected to be several months before they could return.

The family set up a GoFundMe to help them recover.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation as of this report.