PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Ten people living in a three-story house at 282 Oxford St. on the city's South Side were forced to flee the building Tuesday after residents discovered a fire on the top floor around 8:50 p.m.
Natalie Batista, who lives with her parents, an aunt, two brothers and a cousin in the first floor and basement, said family members were alerted to the fire by her younger brother, who reported seeing smoke coming from vacant upstairs apartment.
After knocking on doors to alert a family living on the second floor -- including Lady Venura, her mother and brother -- Batista and her father went to the third floor to try to put out the blaze with a hose and extinguisher but found "flames everywhere."
Deputy Fire Chief James Mirza said all the residents, as well as several pets including some dogs, a cat and a canary, were safely out of the building when firefighters arrived. He said and the blaze was extinguished in about 20 minutes, after it burned through part of the roof.
He said the cause of the blaze was under investigation but that it apparently began in the upper part of the building in the rear.
The house is just down the block from St. Michael the Archangel Church and is diagonally opposite the Institute for the Study and Practice of Non-violence.