One family was displaced and three houses were destroyed when a fire ripped through a neighborhood street in Newark Friday afternoon, fire officials say.
The fire broke out an abandoned house on Hudson Street and jumped to two surrounding structures, according to the Newark Fire Department. Only one of the three houses was occupied.
The fire went to three alarms, and smoke and flames could be seen shooting from the buildings' roofs. The blaze was brought under control at about 5 p.m., but all three structures were destroyed.
No injuries were reported, but Taniriah Bodison said she and her two young daughters escaped their three-story home just in time, and with hardly any clothes on.
"I open the door and I see these flames, and then my child -- my littlest baby -- she's looking out the window into the flames," Bodison said. "I run upstairs and then grab whatever I could off my shoe rack and run downstairs, and seconds later the window just exploded."
Bodison and her family spent Friday evening cleaning out the remnants of their charred home. The family is receiving relocation assistance from the Red Cross.
Fire officials say they're not sure how the fire broke out.
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Bodison said this isn't the first time there's been a fire at the vacant home next door. She said the building was abandoned five years ago and had been occupied intermittently by squatters. She said she has complained to authorities several times, but nothing has been done.
