At least 14 people have been displaced early Wednesday morning by a huge 2-alarm apartment fire on the city's Northeast Side.
The fire at the Connemara Estates in the 2600 block of Thousand Oaks Drive appeared to be contained to one building that affected four units.
Huge flames and big plumes of smoke forced firefighters to take a defensive stance in their strategy to battle the fire, which started at around 5 a.m.
"I just saw flames everywhere. The grass was on fire, the building was, it was coming out of the windows," said Sarah Degrassi, who lives in an adjacent building.
A pair of ladder trucks were among 28 units at the scene.
Bill and Marsha Copenhaver were among the first to know about the fire.
Marsha was leaving for work when the smelled the smoke, then saw the flames.
"It was pretty scary because you knew it was going to get out of control, because they were already so engulfed in the ceiling," Bill said.
The Copenhavers knocked on the doors of the apartments in the burning building to make sure everyone made it out.
"I've always heard about how thick the smoke could be, because I have firefighters in my family, but you never know what they're going through until you have to go through it yourself," Marsha said.
Marsha said she couldn't see through the smoke as she made her way through stairways, and used the guardrail to make her way.
Her neighbors say Marsha had a lot to do with the fact that no one was hurt in the massive fire.
"Somebody said, 'Why would you do it?' and it's like, 'Why wouldn't you do it?,'" Marsha said.