"It was about 4 o'clock when I heard my neighbor Christine screaming Theresa, Theresa, fire," said Theresa Bohley. She lives on Green Street in Rensselaer. She looked out her window and saw that house number 17 was up in flames.
"I just thought oh my God, why is this happening? And just thought the whole block was going to go," she said. "We probably would have been dead, all of us because the houses are so close together."
Her home sustained heavy smoke and water damage, but it's nothing compared to her neighbors' homes.
"When I got here there was a heavy volume of fire in two structures, on its way into a third," said Fire Chief Philip Foust.
Hours later, the fire was still smoldering. One house was left burnt to the ground, the other had to be torn down.
"The original fire building was vacant, the rest of the four structures that were damaged were occupied," he said.
"I'm fortunate, when I look at these houses of my neighbors, they lost everything. I'm very fortunate," said Bohley.The cause of the fire is still not known, but neighbors said it is believed to have started in the back of the original home. Neighbors also said that the house was being renovated.
