Massive Fire In East Orange

An entire apartment complex on Williams Street in East Orange is destroyed.

Flames tore through the three-story brick building late Monday night into Tuesday morning.

Three people suffered minor injuries. Fire officials say the blaze started in an apartment on the second floor.

Forty residents have been displaced. The building's roof collapsed at around 4:30 a.m.

Fox 5 Reporter Linda Schmidt spoke with several residents of 209 Williams Street on Tuesday morning. Linda reports that many say they did not have smoke detectors. Linda spoke with the landlord who disputes those claims. A fire chief on the scene says there are, in fact, smoke detectors in the building, but he could not say for sure if they were functional.

A witness described what it was like trying to escape: " We crawled our way out.. it was so dark we couldn't see nothing...I had my 3 year old son.. I had to hold him literally under my arm."

Arson investigators were called to the scene.

It's not clear what sparked the blaze.