An early morning apartment fire on Thursday on the West Side of Chicago sent a family of six to the hospital, four of them children.

The fire broke out shortly after 5:30 a.m. in the 5600 block of West Adams Street in the Austin neighborhood.

Fire officials said the first crews who arrived at the scene saw smoke coming from the third floor of the apartment building, with two people hanging from the window, prompting ladder rescues. 

Firefighters immediately started putting hose lines into the building in an effort to gain control of the flames. Crews located two children inside the burning apartment and another two outside.

Officials said that two adults and two children were taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition with severe burn injuries, while the other two children are expected to be ok. Their ages were not released. 

"These guys did an amazing job. I think if it wasn't for their quick actions, we might have had more victims and possibly severe fatalities," said CFD District Chief Scott Shawaluk.

One neighbor said he woke up to glass shattering and his neighbors screaming.

"That's a terrible way to start the new year. Terrible way to start the new year," James Banks said.

Banks lives in the basement of the apartment building, and said he wasn't even aware his neighbors' apartment caught on fire.

"When I came out, I seen like a lot of fire trucks. I didn't even know the fire was going on. So, I came outside and I seen like 20 fire trucks, and then I looked up and it was burning," he said.

Banks said he knows the family who lives there and said they've never had a problem.

"I always see him with his kids. He take them bike riding and everything. So, yeah, he's a good guy," he said.

Property Manager Roman Vire said he couldn't imagine what the family injured in the fire is going through.

"I mean, I woke up in a warm bed, and these poor people have to wake up to a fire and water raining down on top of them," he said. 

Vire said they would be able to house them in another available unit. 

Chicago police said the fire was accidental.