WILKES-BARRE -- Several homes were reduced to rubble after a fire on North Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilkes-Barre and a man was flown to the hospital with severe burns.
The owner of the building looked on with a heavy heart as the structure he's owned for more than 60 years was ripped down hours after the fire started.
City workers had to tear into it to get to stubborn hot spots.
Firefighters had a tough time getting the blaze that sparked around 2:30 p.m. under control.
Flames were raging out of windows and smoke could be seen billowing from the roof of the building that housed Goodfellas restaurant and apartments upstairs.
One neighbor came out of her home to see a man being pulled from the fire.
"They pulled him out on a stretcher his burns were bad. If they looked like that 10 feet away, what do they look like up close?" said Kathryn Pierson of Wilkes-Barre.
Officials tell us that man was inside his apartment upstairs when the fire broke out. A firefighter found him on the second floor back stairwell.
"Our fire fighters had to pull him out to safety. The building was bad. The center collapsed," said Deputy Fire Chief Alan Klapat.
Another man who lived upstairs made it out of the building okay.
The rest of those who lived there were not home at the time.
Meanwhile people are devastated this happened to one of their neighbors and are worried about his condition.
The fire is still under investigation, but the deputy fire chief said the blaze does not appear to be suspicious.