Multi-alarm blaze forces evacuations, destroys construction site in Center City Philadelphia

CENTER CITY (WPVI) -- A multi-alarm blaze forced dozens of evacuations and left a construction site in ruins early Tuesday in Center City Philadelphia.

The fire was called in around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday at 13th and Chancellor streets.

Flames from the fire lit up Nassef Guirguis' fifth floor window.

"They blew windows out," he told Action News. "Fire started coming inside."

Guirguis shot dramatic cell phone video of the fire after he was evacuated from his Center City apartment.

Other people in surrounding apartment buildings got up, too - and they got out.

"I ran down 23 flights of stairs, saw the huge fire next door," said Matthew Wong.

Different cell phone video from another viewer shows the intense flames shooting up toward the sky, coming from the site of a restaurant under construction.

The site is right next to the 6-story Gramercy Building.

The Chancellor, which is 24 stories high, is separated by the street. But it, too, wasn't safe from the flames.

"The heat was causing the windows to crack," said D'Angelo Gore, "and my air conditioner was starting to melt."

From up above in a neighboring building you could see the destruction the fire left behind. The construction site is in ruins.

Fire Commissioner Derrick Sawyer said the major concerns were getting everyone out of hundreds of apartments and stopping the spread of the fire.

He commended the swift action of arriving units.

"Within 2 minutes they called for a second alarm and a minute later a third alarm because they wanted to make sure there were enough resources to get in both of buildings," Sawyer said.

The fire was declared under control by 5:43 a.m., just over an hour after it was first reported.

The cause remains under investigation.