More than a dozen residents including an FDNY firefighter were injured during a five-alarm fire in Queens Wednesday afternoon.
Firefighters encountered heavy smoke and fire when they approached the scene and quickly upgraded the incident.
The firefighter was seriously injured but was stable, fire officials reported.
About 450 residents in the six-story apartment building are without a place to call home just days before Christmas.
"It's a very large E-shaped building. It has four main wings, A-D. Our main fire was in the middle wings, the B-C wing," FDNY Chief Tom Currao told CBS, adding that added to the challenge for firefighters.
One resident told reporters she wasn't aware of the fire.
"Our cat saved us. Our cat!" Shelly Phifer-Torres said adding that he kept going to the door.
When she looked through the peephole, she saw firefighters in the hall.
The cause remains under investigation.
