"The fire came all the way to my house and I don't have nothing. I have no place to stay, no nothing," fire victim Sharon Montgomery said.
Montgomery watched helplessly from across the street as flames devoured her home at on Mt. Vernon Street.
She is just one of the victims of the massive 12-alarm fire at the old Reliable Tire Co. factory, which moved out of the building in 1999.
It was a wild, uncontrollable blaze that spread rapidly through several blocks of Camden's Parkside section. Smoke was still rising from the smoldering remains of the buildings on Friday morning.
"In the rear, it actually turned in to like a firestorm and when you look down the street you could see the fire just turning, a whirlwind, and it was just blowing across the street igniting several homes and extended into the warehouse," Camden Fire Department Chief Michael Harper said.
The chief estimates 10 homes on Chestnut, Orchard and Mt. Vernon streets were consumed by flames.
It's unclear how many were occupied.
With the fire belching a huge plume of black smoke into the air that could be seen for miles, some residents were evacuated and others, like Gladys Velasquez, got out garden hoses, trying to wet their homes down and protect them from the flames hop-scotching through the neighborhood.
"I'm pregnant, I shouldn't even be out here, but I got to save my house," Velasquez told Action News as she watered her home.
Others had no chance.
Several vehicles and propane tanks exploded and burned when flames surrounded them.
"Our biggest problem was trying to get water supply, especially to the rear. Once we used all the Camden resources, we had to wait for mutual aid to show up," Chief Harper said.
And show up they did. Hundreds of firefighters and emergency crews from all over South Jersey responded, hauling and laying miles of hoses to get water to the fire.
With temperatures nearly 100 degrees, it was brutal for firefighters working the scene.
At least three were taken to the hospital to be checked for heat exhaustion. Some checked in at rehab stations where they could cool down and rehydrate.
Others on the fire line were happy just to get a wet cold towel delivered by EMTs that they could wrap around their necks.
"It's like working out really heavily. You're pulling hoselines and you're breathing hard and you're adrenaline's going," fireman Nick Diamanti of the Pennsauken Fire Department said.
Crews were first called to the scene around 4:00 p.m. The fire was declared under control by 8:45 p.m.
Because of the fire, PATCO suspended all service for a short time on Thursday before resuming normal service.
According to the owner of Reliable Tires, when the company moved out of the building in August 1999, it was completely empty with no tires left inside.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.