MALONE, N.Y. -
About a
dozen tenants are homeless after being burned out of their apartment
building in Malone, New York early Friday morning.
Crystal Perry, who lives
in the building on East Main Street with her mother and aunt, said she and
other tenants were awakened by someone who just happened to be passing by
and spotted flames coming from the roof and top floor.
"We got
woken up by someone banging on the door -- an innocent bystander who I'd like to
thank because he was just walking down the street and saw the house was on fire
and started banging on our doors. It was like 5:38 in the morning.
We got up, got dressed, and came out and could see the top of the house on
fire. The top was engulfed in flames," Perry said.
All the
tenants, and their pets, made it out safely, but all eight apartments are
gutted. Teams of fire investigators have been going through the apartment
house, but so far no word on what may have started the fire. Students at
Flanders Elementary School across street were evacuated and bused to the high school as fire crews battled the fire throughout much of the morning.
