More than 200 firefighters were called to a Bronx apartment building Monday after a five-alarm blaze tore through the building, leaving many families at least temporarily homeless, authorities say.
The fire ignited on the roof of the six-story building on Montgoery Avenue in Morris Park shortly before noon. It's not clear what started the blaze.
"I saw the firefighters and they said, 'go down, run and go down,' and I did," said resident Victoria Ofori, who was still in her pajamas when she was woken by the commotion and rushing water.
Dismerys Cabral escaped with her family, but they don't know if their apartment is damaged or whetere they will sleep.
"I was very nervous and I saw the smoke," Cabral said, whose family and neighbors were huddled in blankets and cradling coffee outside the 66-unit building as the cold reality set in after the fire.
FDNY Chief James Leonard said it was difficult to get a handle on the fire because some of the top floor was almost all concrete.
"We had to pull it down," he said. "It's very difficult."
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Two residents and four firefighters suffered minor injuries.
The Red Cross says it plans to offer temporary assistance to the more than dozen families who were displaced by the fire.
