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Row Homes Ripped By Flames In East Stroudsburg

EAST STROUDSBURG –Fire tore through row homes in East Stroudsburg early Tuesday, driving nearly two dozen residents out. Firefighters in Monroe County bel...

EAST STROUDSBURG --Fire tore through row homes in East Stroudsburg early Tuesday, driving nearly two dozen residents out.

Firefighters in Monroe County believe Tuesday morning's flames were sparked by a man who fell asleep with a lit cigarette.

Because of that, 22 people no longer have a home.

The fire chief in East Stroudsburg believes a resident fell asleep while smoking in bad, and that's what sent nearly two dozen people out into the night.

Firefighters faced a double block home, and a string of row homes on Lackawanna Avenue filled with flames around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Caroline Loring was in one of them.

"I was sleeping and then what happened? My niece woke me up and said there was a fire, 'come on you have to get out.' I jumped out of bed, no shoes or nothing."

Officials say not every resident was as lucky as Loring. Two had to jump from a second floor roof. Four others were hurt.

Cindy Storm said she made it out of her smoke-filled home with seconds to spare. There was no time to save anything.

"We're homeless. We lost everything. 22 of us lost everything," Stomr said. "We're pretty much in the street. We have nowhere to go."

The American Red Cross was there to help with food, clothing, and a place to stay; meeting with residents as they huddled together, watching flames consume their homes.

According to the fire chief in East Stroudsburg, the flames started in the row home on the far right, and as we have seen many times with row home fires, when it starts in one, the others are sure to be damaged as well.

That's exactly what happened on Lackawanna Avenue.

"It's an old building. You have common walls, open attic space. Once the fire starts going, it goes from one end to the other," said East Stroudsburg Chief Bryan Wallie.

Flames jumped to a double block home on one side of the row homes, and a home on the other side has smoke and water damage.

The chief believes the row homes are a total loss and they will have to be torn down.

No firefighters were hurt.

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