"It looked like a movie": Firefighters save several people from burning Cambridge apartments
CAMBRIDGE – Two people were seriously hurt when a fire ripped through a Cambridge apartment building early Thursday morning.
It happened around 7 a.m. on Garden Street. When firefighters arrived, they were met by heavy flames in a staircase.
"It looked like a movie. I've never seen this kind of thing in my whole life," said Amsale Velay, who lives in the building. "It was very scary. Very scary. But you just did what we had to do, just run away out the stairs."
Acting Fire Chief Tom Cahill said firefighters rescued several people using ladders. One man has significant burns to much of his body, Cahill said. Another person was rescued from inside the burning building and has a serious cut on his head.
"I went to open the door and literally a rush, a black cloud of smoke hit me and I panicked. My husband died recently, so I picked up his ashes and two teddy bears that he gave me for companionship. Grabbed those, my phone and my wallet, which were all handy," Diana Koulalis-Karatza said. "I don't know what's going to happen from here. I don't know what's going to happen. It's just scary."
It took firefighters about 30 minutes to put out the fire. There are 16 units and 25 people live in the building, which Cahill said is not a total loss.
The Red Cross is currently helping people impacted by the fire.
There's no word yet on how or where the fire started.
