Three adults and a baby are without a place to live after a fire early Saturday morning ripped through a duplex in Brookline, Massachusetts.
The Brookline Fire Department responded to the Beaconfield Road home after receiving a 911 call shortly before 9:00 a.m. and found heavy fire in the attic.
Authorities say everyone got out safely and no injuries were reported.
"One family is a single person. One family is a couple with an 8-month-old child. Everyone evacuated safely," Colin O'Connell, of Brookline Fire, said.
"We know it's accidental. The family was on scene. They were thinking it originated on second floor. They did notice there was some electrical issues and a light odor of smoke...they evacuated the house and notified the downstairs neighbor," O'Connell added.
Neighbors say it was tough to see knowing one family has a baby.
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"It's pretty awful," Amy Bullock said. "They lost everything because of all the water and the fire."
Ryan Bush lives nearby and says it all seemed to build up within a span of 30 minutes.
"I first saw the fire trucks pulling in down the street and saw a light amount of smoke coming out of the neighbor's house," he said. "It didn't ever really seem like the flames were coming through the roof on their own. There were firefighters on the roof who were actually breaking through the roof to let smoke out and that's when there were some flames coming through the roof."
Firefighters were able to get the fire under control within 90 minutes, even while battling strong winds and frigid temperatures on top of the heavy flames.
"They were hindered a little bit by the extreme cold, but we have a third alarm to help recuperate the early firefighters that were in," O'Connell said of the challenges. "The hydrant systems stood up to the cold, and we are having some ice problems...they're putting some salt and sand down, mainly to reduce slip-and-fall hazards."
"Any weather extreme, whether it's super hot, super cold, snow, rain, hurricanes, adds a lot to every single firefighter," he added.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation but it is not considered suspicious. Damages are estimated around $500,000.
