Multi-Alarm Fire Rips Through Frankford Boarding Home
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A fire rips through a boarding home in the Frankford section of Philly on Friday, just by the El train, displacing about a dozen people.
Smoke billowed for much of the afternoon on the 4200 block of Paul Street.
"It was out of control. There's no way anybody can go back in there," said one woman.
"We have a lot of buildings that are pretty dangerous for our firefighters. These are some of those building," said Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel.
Fire officials say part of the building collapsed inside.
Now a joint arson task force is trying to find what caused the blaze.
"That doesn't mean that there's anything suspicious it simply means we all work together and it'll be hours probably days potentially weeks before we know the cause of the fire," Thiel said.
The fire displaced nearly a dozen people, including Derrick Rawls.
"I can see through my floor when I looked upstairs and I see the fire," said Rawls.
He was inside the home when he suddenly saw flames in the ceiling and rushed his family outside. That's when he realized he forgot to take his dog Nyla. But firefighters quickly jumped into rescue mode, bravely went into the home and retrieved his dog.
"I thought it was over. I thought it was over, smoke inhalation I thought it was over. But they told like got it - that's it that's it that's my baby," said Rawls.
