A huge blaze ripped through three homes on Liberty Avenue Monday. NY1's Shannan Ferry filed the following report.
91-year-old Helen Ancrum, her son and her cat safely escaped from a massive fire in their home in Jamaica on Monday morning.
"I was calling for my son, he lives downstairs, and he came up and I said Barry the house is on fire the house is on fire!" said Ancrum.
Fire officials say the blaze broke out just after 9 a.m. on Liberty Avenue.
It took about 140 firefighters more than an hour to bring the fire under control.
"I don't know how it happened, but it happened, and you have to accept things they way they are sometimes," Ancrum said.
Aron Halliburton, who says he works right across the street, told NY1 that he and several others ran into the burning home as soon as they saw smoke.
"We automatically knew, I know there's an old lady that lives in this house because I see her every morning, so we started kicking down doors, so we just grabbed her and just ran out the house," Halliburton recalled.
Fire officials say strong winds caused the fire to quickly spread to two other homes.
"So on arrival we had heavy fire in three buildings, first unit arrived on the scene within three minutes, we began an aggressive attack, when the wind condition is like it is today probably 20-25 MPH, it makes our job a lot more difficult," said Deputy Chief Joe Cunningham.
Ancrum's children said they had great memories growing up in their now-destroyed home.
They planed to find a hotel until they could figure out what's next.
"My concern is that we got out okay, that's all," Helen Ancrum said.
Five firefighters did suffer minor injuries.
Officials from the Red Cross said that it provided basic necessities to family members from two of the homes.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.