Firefighters battle 4-alarm fire in West Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A four alarm fire in a vacant West Philadelphia building prompted a massive emergency response Saturday, drawing more than 150 firefighters and paramedics to the scene.

It started around 5:10 a.m. Saturday in a five story building on 48th and Locust Streets.

Video from the citizen app shows flames light up the dawn sky, shooting through the roof of the building.

"I said wow, that is a big fire," said Jon Neal, who lives on the other side of the block. He says he was already awake when the fire started and he ran outside. "It looked like somebody had poured a couple thousand gallons of gasoline on the roof and lit it. I mean the flames were shooting 30, 40 feet in the air."

The fire department says first responders first saw flames in the courtyard.

"It's a large, five story u-shaped building about a half block by about 70 yards and they realized they had heavy volume of fire," said deputy commissioner Carl Randolph.

It took firefighters about two hours to control the fire. They dumped water from the outside for hours.

"We understood very quickly that we would not be able to get inside because the fire had made great advancements," said Randolph. "We're not willing to put any life, any of our firefighters in jeopardy by putting them inside the building."

Neighbors watched the response for hours, waiting for progress as some buildings on the street lost power in the process.

"Now there's no electricity in the building. it's really warm there. I have a child there. It's getting hot in there," said Denise Irwin.

There's still no word at this point on a potential cause of the fire. The fire marshal is on the scene investigating.