NEW YORK – More than 20 firefighters and two civilians were injured when a four-alarm blaze ripped through a stretch of New York City homes on Saturday.
The ferocious blaze started at 1:15pm at a three-story building on Van Nest Avenue in the Bronx and spread to three neighboring buildings, leaving 11 people homeless.
It took 200 firemen two hours to get the blaze under control.
"It's a real disaster now -- four structures are damaged very severely," said assistant fire chief Ronald Spadafora.
He said that two firefighters were quickly rescued and sent to Jacobi Medical Center with minor injuries after a ceiling collapsed at 726 Van Nest Ave.
"When you hear firefighters [calling] mayday, it gets the blood rising," Spadafora said.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but witnesses said it started on the ground floor, which is home to a church called Full-Life Christian Assembly International.
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