The fire department says candles were to blame for the fire.
"My niece and I saw some flames...so we grabbed the cat, threw her in the bag. We were banging on the doors as we were going down," one fire victim said.
On the street below -- it was bedlam with dozens of families pouring out of the building.
Some gasped for air -- while others had passed out in the hall -- as firefighters, medics and police packed-in.
Two people who couldn't get out -- jumped from their sixth floor apartment -- a man and his five-year-old godson.
They hit the sidewalk -- and neither one survived.
"They tended to this figure and I saw chest compressions and then they picked up the body and put it on the gurney," one witness said.
A woman who lived in that same sixth floor apartment was trapped in a bedroom. She also tried to jump -- but an air-conditioner and child safety bars kept her from getting through the window. Firefigthers say *that* probably saved her life. They rescued her just minutes later.
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STORY BY: Eyewitness News reporter Jamie Roth
WEB PRODUCED BY: Lakisha Bostick
