Darryl Parsons leapt off the balcony of his second floor suite to escape a fire and save his life on Friday night.

The 23-year-old left his suite for a moment prior to 11:30 p.m. to visit his neighbour in the building at 32850 George Ferguson Way when he heard the fire alarm.

Parsons ran back to his condo in the Abbotsford Place complex to look for his two cats but found his apartment full of smoke.

Shutting the door, he grabbed the fire extinguisher in the hall, but within seconds smoke and flames engulfed the kitchen.

“I didn’t expect it to get that bad that fast,” he told the Times.

“It was filled with smoke and flames were hitting the ceiling,” he said.

“Smoke hit me in the face.”

Dropping to his knees, he crawled around searching for his pets for about 20 seconds before making his way to the sliding glass doors.

By the time he got there, the situation was dire enough that he jumped off the balcony without shoes, landing on the muddy grass about 20 feet below and escaping without injury.

While surveying the damage Monday morning, Parsons said the fire started after he put a pot of oil on the stove to cook some French fries.

He then popped down the hall to see if his friend wanted to join him.

He was only gone about two or three minutes when the alarm went off.

Abbotsford Fire Rescue was called to the three-building complex at George Ferguson Way and Gladwin Road at 11:35 p.m.

Crews arrived to find heavy, black smoke billowing from the three-storey building.

Within minutes of arriving, a suite on the second floor was fully engulfed in flames and the fire was threatening additional units.

Firefighters quickly attacked the blaze from the outside of the building and then managed to contain it to the single unit.

During the fire residents from other suites in the building were evacuated and took shelter from the cold weather in two city buses.

The Salvation Army attended to provide warm drinks for the displaced residents and food for the firefighters.

Abbotsford Emergency Support Services helped the displaced occupants.

Most of residents in the complex were able to return to their suites once the fire was out.

However, the suite where the fire started was destroyed and 12 surrounding units were uninhabitable due to heavy smoke and water damage in the building.

Six residents were provided temporary housing while the remaining occupants displaced by the fire took shelter with friends and family.

In all, 12 fire trucks from six different fire halls and 48 firefighters attended the fire.

Damage from the blaze is estimated between $100,000 to $200,000.

Parsons, who rents the suite, has no fire insurance and moved into the building just two months ago.

“My home’s gone. That’s it,” he said.

He’d simply returned to try and look for his pet.

One cat died in the fire, but the other, a black and white cat named Sylvester, is still missing.

“It’s the only thing I want. I don’t care about the stuff. I just want my cat back,” he said. His mom Lori Dixon has put up a ‘Find Sylvester’ Facebook page.

“We just want as many people out there looking as possible,” she said. “He’s an indoor cat and he’s out there and bound to be extremely scared.”

She said Sylvester is really all her son has left, and she’s desperately hoping someone has found him.

“When I think about [Darryl] going in [to the burning apartment], it’s really, really scary to know we could have lost him because he went looking for his cats.”

A trust fund account has been set up for Parsons, for those who may be able to help. Contact the Bank of Montreal (Lori Dixon interest for Darryl), account #3981-363.