Fire crews responded to the 200 block of Saratoga Street in Cohoes after flames broke out Thursday morning.
The fire was mostly within the third floor apartment, but also spread to the apartment below. All eight people inside were able to get out safely.
The incident served as an unfortunate reminder for one of the residents, Nathan Milligan, who lost his pregnant daughter Vanessa in a fire in 2014.
Milligan's ex-boyfriend Gabriel Vega was recently sentenced to prison for his role in their deaths.
"It just makes me think about my daughter -- that smell, when I saw the black smoke, the cloud, it crossed my mind like, 'man this is what she went through," he said.
Officals say they are continuing to look into what caused the fire, but residents believe it was electrical.