After six hours of battling heavy flames and icy conditions, close to 200 firefighters were able to place a 5-alarm fire under control, but not before it destroyed a Philadelphia apartment building and sent dozens of people onto the streets.
With fears that the building may collapse at any moment, firefighters were relegated to fighting the blaze from the outside. They doused the roof of the four-story apartment complex in hopes of quelling the flames. It is believed the fire began on the fourth floor of the building on the 900 block of North 63rd Street around 2:15 a.m. Monday. Officials evacuated adjacent buildings due to the possibility of ongoing collapse; flames caused the roof to cave in, which did allow crews to fight the fire from above.