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(CBS) QUEENS A four-alarm fire in Elmhurst left as many as 60 families without a home Monday night. The fire started around 7 o'clock in a rear corner apartment on the top floor of the seven-story building at 41-65 Forley St.
Breno Zimerer lives on the 7th floor. His wife called him when fire broke out and urged him to rush home.
"From all the way to the precinct, you could see the flames bursting out!" Zimerer said.
Edy Gonzales said that the fire started in her neighbor's apartment after the family had turned on a portable space heater.
Gonzales spoke to the family after they evacuated the building.
"She said she noticed that the heater was smoking, and she called her husband. They tried to put the fire out with a blanket but then the heater exploded, and they ran out," Gonzales said.
The fire destroyed three apartments and caused severe smoke and water damage to several other units on the 7th and 6th floors.
No one was seriously injured, but 14 firefighters and four residents suffered minor injuries.
Zimerer said that he's happy his family escaped unharmed, but they lost nearly all they owned. "We went Christmas shopping, everything's gone gone, gone," he said.
The fire marshal is still investigating the cause of the fire. Red Cross is assisting the displaced families. Many were temporarily sheltered at P.S. 89 in Elmhurst.
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