More than five dozen people were forced out of their apartments Friday morning as a devastating blaze tore through a New Jersey apartment building.
Smoke and fire were first reported in Passaic around 2 a.m. for what would become a 4-alarm response by multiple fire departments rushing to save the 3-story structure.
Investigators believe that all of the people living inside the building's 24 units were able to make it out of the building safely and without injury. A few of the responding firefighters, however, did suffer minor injuries, officials said.
The Red Cross of New Jersey said 66 people from the building at the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Madison Street were being assisted. A shelter opened Friday morning at PS 23 to accommodate such a large group.
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Officials were still getting a head count of those impacted by the fire hours after the sun came up, and suspected the number of tenants displaced could be higher than 66.
There was no immediate word on the cause of the fire. An investigation is ongoing.
