Two families are homeless after a massive house fire in New London on Thursday morning.
The fire started around 4 a.m. inside the multi-family home on Bank Street.
Authorities believe the fire started on the first floor. The fire marshal is looking into a cause of origin.
According to the Red Cross, six people from two families got out of the home safely.
At one point, the flames and smoke were so intense that fire crews were ordered out of the building, fire officials said.
It took fire fighters nearly two hours to extinguish the blaze.
"When the primary search was being conducted to make sure all the tenants were out safe, we discovered that there was heavy fire throughout the building, so we evacuated the firefighters and then fought the fire from a defensive position," Chief Ronald Samul of the New London Fire Department said.
Local
Joseph Occhionero witnessed the flames shooting from an upstairs window and was shocked to see the blaze spread so quickly.
"It was coming out the window and then onto the porch," Occhionero said.
The entire home is charred and gutted with broken glass and debris on the ground.
"It's horrible, horrible to wake up and see something like that," Melissa Farooq, a neighbor, said.
She said she knows what the fire victims are going through; her home burned down just a few years ago.
"My kids barely got out, we lost all of our pets. We walked out with the clothes on our back," she said.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
The Red Cross is assisting with food and housing for the fire victims, who are now left homeless.
"It’s horrible to lose everything and you have to start over, but thank God everyone is OK," Farooq said.
