The Fullerton Apartments strata manager, Ros Edwards, said a builder was coming from Sydney to assess the damage to pipes before residents would be allowed back into their apartments, which were currently "uninhabitable".

Water and power supplies to the affected units at 11 Fawkner Street have been cut off pending safety assessments.

She said the 71-unit building would be made secure on Wednesday, with doors replaced on apartments where firefighters forced entry and damaged windows boarded up.

A resident who moved in last week had to find alternative accommodation after the fire. She said she was staying with a friend but had returned on Wednesday to let an electrician into her apartment to assess the damage.

She said there had been no date set for residents to return.

One owner who occupied an affected unit has been provided emergency accommodation by the insurance company, Ms Edwards said.

But tenants who leased the units have had to find their own accommodation.

"There didn't seem to be anyone distressed about that last night," she said, saying all affected residents had found places to stay.

ACT Fire and Rescue responded to the blaze in a ground floor apartment, which spread to a hedge at the rear of the complex, shortly before midnight.

Ms Edwards said there was no one in the apartment when the fire happened but it did have a tenant.

Paramedics assessed and treated seven people at the scene for minor smoke inhalation, but no one had been taken to hospital.