(Newark-WABC, March 3, 2005) -- A stubborn apartment fire burned for hours in an apartment building in Newark. Firefighters spent all morning trying to get it under control.
Ken Rosato is in Newark with more.
Good news, scores of residents were evacuated. No serious injuries reported.
This fire starting one o'clock this morning. It quickly spread throughout the upper two floors of the building. That forced evacuation of dozens of residents.
We are told that residents were going from door-to-door to get other people out of the building and that is what saved so many lives. We spoke to one resident who even thought he wouldn't make it out alive, he says he lost it all in this fire.
David McCoy, Building Resident: "I didn't grab nothing but my clothes on my back. I just came in the house about 12:30. I watched a little bit of TV. Good thing I had my room door open this morning, because I wouldn't have heard anyone knock on my door."
This fire is being called a four alarm fire. Firefighters still do not known what caused the fire or exactly why it spread quickly. However, we have very high winds. The winds literally causing the spray, a mist of water to blow laterally and that definitely would have contributed to the spread of this fire. The fire moving very, very quickly and engulfing the top two floors. At least on one side of the building right now, both the the 4th and 5th floors entirely gutted on the other half of the building. Just the very top floor appears gutted.
Fire officials are on the scene investigating, trying to figure out a cause.
