Firefighters Battle 7-Alarm Blaze In Concourse, Bronx
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A fast-moving fire ripped through a Bronx apartment building on Monday morning.
Six people were injured, including firefighters and a 9-month-old child in the seven-alarm blaze, CBS2's Christina Fan reported.
Smoke then panic quickly filled a five-story apartment building on McClellan Street in the Concourse section of the borough. Families woke up Monday to a blanketed haze.
"You try to prepare, but when it happens you don't think. You just think about leaving," resident Jose Perez said.
The flames spread so quickly neighbors said they had no time to react. Nathalie Alas said she was able to grab her son, husband and dogs, but her cat refused to leave. She watched as her pet clung to life on the fire escape. Firefighters couldn't get there in time.
"I'm shaking. Every time I see the smoke coming more up to the fire escape, I'm like oh my God is he going to choke? Is he going to pass out?" Alas said.
Firefighters said the blaze was so difficult to handle because the flames spread into the void space between walls.
"It took multiple hose lines, many firefighters to open up the walls and the ceilings to expose the fire so we could extinguish it," FDNY Chief of Fire Operations Thomas Richardson said.
Among the injured was a firefighter who was carried away in a stretcher after he fell down a flight of stairs. Families who live in the building were waiting to see if anything can be salvaged.
"Right now, they are saying there are no answers, so we are waiting for answers to see if we could go back in," Perez said.
For many, what they've lost is already too much to overcome.
CBS2 learned that none of the injuries are life threatening. The Red Cross is on site trying to help dozens of displaced families.
