Flames broke out inside the home along Nunda Avenue in Jersey City just after 11:30 Saturday morning.
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Neighbors watched in fear as the flames raged on - the thick, black smoke billowed up into the otherwise clear blue sky. A family rushed out into the freezing cold without time to even put a shirt on, carrying one of the children away from the burning home.
Close to 100 firefighters responded to the burning home, climbing ladders and calling for additional backup because of the frigid temperatures.
One firefighter suffered burns to the hands and face while battling the fire that consumed one home, two garages behind it - and spread next door - where a mother and her son with asthma packed up and were forced out into the cold.
The single-family home where the fire broke out was reduced to a heaping, charred mess of rubble.
The Red Cross is assisting two adults an three kids who lived there.
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"Such a good family, good people, you know?" said Muhammad Hanif.
The home next to it is also now uninhabitable. Five adults and one child are also displaced -- without a home in the dead of winter.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Flames took about an hour and a half to place under control.
One woman who Eyewitness News spoke with said she will be staying in a hotel overnight.
None of the people who live in the two homes were injured.
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