HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) -- A fire destroyed seven rowhomes Thursday afternoon at about 3 p.m. on 15th Street near Hunter Street.
The American Red Cross is helping 32 adults and six children who are affected.
Just two weeks ago, another rowhome fire left more than more than 40 people in Harrisburg with nowhere to live.
It has to do with the construction of the row homes. There are a lot of voids, nooks, and crannies which allow fires to spread rapidly.
"It was crazy. It went fast," said Qyana Smith.
Smith has lived in her rowhome on 15th Street for two years. Her daughter was first to notice a burning smell Thursday afternoon.
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"And then alls you saw was all the smoke coming in the windows and we were choking to get out the house. Just to run down and I knocked on my neighbor downstairs, banged on her door, and there was another guy like banging on the door to help us get out," Smith said.
A fire engulfed seven homes in a very short amount of time.
"We were very fortunate today we had a lot of training going on with new firefighters and some firefighters getting some upgrades. So we had about 30 firefighters working today. And yes, we were able to put a lot of people on it quick," said Chief Brian Enterline, Harrisburg Bureau of Fire.
Enterline says part of the building collapsed where the fire started in the middle unit, which prevented firefighters from going in.
"That fire just kept giving us giving us problems, spreading laterally to those adjoining buildings so it was very manpower intensive an absolute stubborn fire to fight," Enterline said.
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He says the old construction and the wind allowed the fire to spread everywhere.
"It was in every wall every ceiling area that you can imagine and it's just time consuming to open that up, multiple layers of ceiling to deal with you know the roof on the fire building started to collapse in so we had to stay away from that," Enterline said.
The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation.
"If anybody knows anything, please contact the fire department, the fire chief and let him know what happened because a lot of families are misplaced and it's really sad," Smith said.
Mayor Wanda Williams was on scene and arranged for city vans to take some of the families to get food and water. The American Red Cross is also assisting, putting up families in a local hotel and providing other resources for clothing, food, and other emergent needs.
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