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(Washington Heights-WABC, June 3, 2005) -- A third-alarm fire that injured at least 35 people left dozens of families homeless and a large apartment building in Washington Heights uninhabitable.
Eyewitness News reporter Lisa Colagrossi is live in Washington Heights with more.
The fast moving blaze tore through the five-story building at 1352 St. Nicholas Avenue just after 1:30 a.m.
Fire officials say the fire started on the first floor of the building and shot up through all five floors, leaving the large structure unstable and uninhabitable.
Firefighters could not battle the blaze from inside the building because the stairwell was not safe. Extinguishing this fire was tough because the FDNY had to fight the fire from the outside. It took hours to put out the flames.
Fire officials say when they arrived on the scene, there were people out on the fire escape waiting to be rescued.
Kevin Scanlon, FDNY: "We were taking people down the fire escapes and helping them down and it was just mayhem, just trying to do that. Working through everything, a lot of firefighters got hurt on the stairs, there were no treads and they were falling from the stairs. Some were basically burnt just going up through the intensity."
Most of 23 firefighters injured received minor injuries and most of the residents were treated for smoke inhalation at Cornell Medical Center.
Buildings department officials issued a vacate order for the structure, leaving dozens of residents from 15 apartments homeless. American Red Cross put up 39 people --six families -- at a Queens hotel.
The apartments really only sustained minor damage. The entire stairwell and portions of the roof did sustain very serious damage.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
