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Children Jump From Windows To Escape Orange, New Jersey Fire; At Least 1 Person Injured

ORANGE, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Children had to jump from windows to escape a towering blaze in a house in Orange, New Jersey Friday night – in which at least one person was injured.

As CBS2's Weijia Jiang reported, the devastating fire was reported at 8:45 p.m. at a two-story house at 191 Central Pl. in Orange. At 11 p.m., smoke was still pouring out of the house.

One family lives in the house, officials said. Orange Mayor Dwayne Warren said at least three children and two adults live in the home, but it was not immediately clear how many people were injured as firefighters continued late Friday to make sure all the flames and hot spots were out.

At least one person was rushed to an area hospital, officials confirmed.

The home was fully engulfed in flames when local firefighters responded, and the frigid cold Friday night made it particularly difficult for firefighters to battle the blaze.

"Our firefighters are out here. We've called neighboring towns as well. It's particularly tough when you have frozen pipes, and the water freezes basically on impact, and so it's good that we have a rotation of firefighters going in and out of the unit," Mayor Warren said. "It's actually still flaming, and it's been doing this for two hours now. So this is serious."

Neighbors also rushed to help as the dramatic scene unfolded.

A neighbor, Darryl Mayfield, told CBS2 how he came to the rescue of one little boy.

"We see smoke coming from the front. We ran down, we looked up -- there was two kids up there, and they was waving. So we were like, 'Yo, jump!' Now man, they didn't jump," Mayfield said. "But the little sister, she threw her brother out. The girl threw the brother out and we caught him."

The fire did not just affect the family who lived in the home. A family that resides in a neighboring house was stuck outside in the cold for two hours.

An NJ TRANSIT bus was sent to the scene to keep displaced residents warm.

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