FOREST CITY, Pa. — Flames poured out of a building on Main Street in Forest City. Two apartments were on the top floor. The bottom floor was an empty store front.
Firefighters said 11 people were home at the time and everyone made it out safely.
"The lady next door started pounding on the door screaming that there was a fire to get out. All I could do was grab the kids and run out. It was just smoke everywhere," Ashley Mann said.
Firefighters said it seems the fire started in a kitchen. Residents said an air fryer may be to blame.
"When I got there and I came through the back - seeing that fire... it was actually not the best experience. I can't even express it honestly. It's too much for me to talk about seriously," Dimitri Martinez said.
The historic building was built in 1910 by the Kameen family. They ran a hardware shop on the bottom floor.
"I will admit that I shed a tear when I saw it going up in flames because my family owned it for 50 years and I lived there. I was born and raised there," John Kameen said.
Because the building is 110 years old, firefighters said they had some difficulties getting the fire under control.
"The problem with the building is there are three roofs that we've found so far in the building. It's been remodeled a lot of times. The fire was in between the roofs and we had quite the challenge," Forest City Fire Chief Paul Lukus said.
Crews worked hard to make sure that this fire did not spread to any other buildings because directly next is Zazzera's Supermarket.
"Absolutely no water in the market. Little light haze of smoke but other than that he's fine," Chief Lukus said.
"If anything had happened to that supermarket, you could literally close down Forest City. Zazzera's supermarket is the anchor in this town without that our town would be in desperate shape," Kameen said.
The American Red Cross is helping those who lost everything in this fire.
A state police fire marshal is working to determine an official cause.