At least 12 people displaced after 3-alarm structure fire in Pittsburgh's Bloomfield neighborhood

At least 12 residents have been displaced after a three-alarm fire heavily damaged five homes in Pittsburgh's Bloomfield neighborhood, according to Pittsburgh Public Safety.

The fire was reported just before 3:30 p.m. along the 4500 block of Penn Avenue. Large flames could be seen above the homes.

All but two individuals were safely accounted for, authorities said in an update. It was later determined that those two residents were not at home at the time of the fire, Pittsburgh Public Safety confirmed.

"By the moment we were outside, it was like full flames climbing the building," Katie Cincotti said, who lives inside one of the homes which was heavily damaged.

Her roommate, Jarred Reccek, first joked that the smoke they smelled must have been a candle they had put out, she said.

"Our third roommate called me, and he was like, 'Is our apartment on fire?' And as he said that, I saw it, like, fully billowing past the windows," Cincotti said.

Suddenly, they knew they had little time to escape. The took barely more than the clothes on their backs.

"I honestly, immediately assumed that I was never walking back into that place," she said, describing how quickly the white smoke turned black while she was still in the home. "I was like, 'We're done. Like, we got to get out. This place is over.'"

The three-alarm fire response, which itself is infrequent in Pittsburgh, used 50 firefighters, assistant chief Brian Kokilla said. He explained how the fire spread so fast. 

"We believe most of that impact was a result of the wind-driven and the construction and the tight spacing of these homes," Kokilla said.

Firefighters were able to get to the scene so quickly, in part, because of the proximity of a fire station. 

Austin Duffield was asleep on his couch in the apartment below Cincotti's when the fire began. He described waking up to a bang and seeing fire on his back balcony. By the time he could get clothes on, the fire, he said, was coming through the window. 

"I lost everything that I have. I had a lot of priceless things in my house that I can't really get back," Duffield said. 

Duffield, Reccek, and Cincotti live at the home where Kokilla believes the fire started. A cause is under investigation, but Reccek did mention they have faced electrical issues recently at the home, including downed power lines, and that they told their landlord about them, saying they also mentioned it to investigators. 

For him, it has all barely sunk in. 

"I imagine it's going to hit later, because it's, I mean, we've gone back and forth of laughing about it and crying about it," Reccek said. 

The American Red Cross has been notified to assist displaced residents with temporary shelter and other necessities.