The two-alarm fire broke out just after 6:30 Sunday morning in a six-story building at 75 Bush Street. Resident Michael Marrero says he was in his kitchen when the fire broke out, and the room quickly filled with thick black smoke.
CLICK HERE to see photos from the scene.
"I was squinting, and I had my hand in front of me, and I opened my eyes a little and I saw my mom in the hallway," Marrero says, "so I ran in the hallway, and looked back in the apartment and saw fire."
The flames also woke up Jordan Alston, who lives on the third floor. Alston was the one who called 911. Alston's neighbor, a man in his 50s was hanging out of a window.
"He grabbed the tree and fell," says Alston, "the smoke was coming out the fourth floor window, and he was hanging out the fifth. The firefighters were trying to saw the scaffolding, but it wouldn't work and they had to get the ladder."
The scaffolding, now littered with debris saved the man's life and broke his fall.
"He had a sheet to wave for the firemen and his wife was holding onto him. He just jumped - he was scared," adds Marrero.
The man and his wife were taken to Lutheran Medical Center. Three other people suffered minor injuries.
The fire was confined to the fourth floor and was under control within a half hour.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.