Dozens of people were forced out into the bitter cold early Wednesday morning after a fire burned through a row of houses in Brooklyn.

Flames broke out around 1:30 a.m. in a building on Lafayette Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

The fire quickly spread to a neighboring building and eventually engulfed five houses.

One of the homes affected is owned by State Senator Eric Adams, who was in Albany at the time of the fire. Adams says he rents out the property.

Fire marshals are focusing on the possibility that there were three separate fires sparked by electrical problems.

"The marshals are investigating and looking at possibility it was a problem with electrical service," said FDNY Chief Edward O'Donnell.

Consolidated Edison says a crew was in the area, responding to a call of a smoking service box. But the utility says the service box is not connected to the buildings were the fire broke out.

One resident said he was alerted to the fire by a barking dog.

"He kept barking and kept barking and I got up and went downstairs and it was real smoky and my mom, she has Lou Gehrig's disease, so I had to carry her out the building with the help of a police officer," said resident Khaliq Shariff. "It was freezing outside."

Another resident said she heard small explosions as she scrambled to get outside.

"There was a Con Edison truck across the street and then you just heard this big boom and then the lights dimmed in the house, the TV went off, and then, when I went to the kitchen window to look out, you just saw this bright light," said Shirley Robinson, another fire victim.

"After we got out, we heard pop, pop, pop all over the place," agreed resident David Ronald.

The Red Cross is providing shelter for at least eight families that have been left homeless.

Three people, including two firefighters, were treated for minor injuries.