Watch as firefighters get one off top floor of burning Milford, Massachusetts apartment building. Lots of video and pictures.

In Milford, Massachusetts yesterday, a three-alarm fire gutted an apartment building on Pine Street. The Milford Daily News was on the scene and has video and still pictures of a man being brought down an aerial ladder from a third-floor window as the fire burns below.

The crews eventually went to exterior operations, which you will hear and see on the video above by Metro West Videos and the one below by Providence Fire Videos. At the bottom are aerial views later in the operation.

Here are excerpts from an article by Danielle Ameden, Milford Daily News:

Fire Chief John Touhey said no one was hurt in the blaze at 31 Pine St., which was caused by careless smoking. It sparked when a cigarette ignited a tenant’s bed in a first-floor apartment, the chief said.

Rescuers used a ladder truck to reach a tenant who was hanging out of his third-floor bedroom window, unable to escape with all the thick smoke and fire.

“I’m all right, just a little shaken up,” said Gary Howe, 42, right after he was helped down the fire truck’s extended ladder to the ground. 

Touhey said the fire, reported at 12:44 p.m., got out of control as crews needed to concentrate first on people’s safety.

Flames shot from the first floor up three stories to the roof, and drifting smoke forced the evacuation and closing of the town library next door.

Firefighters, who took hoses inside the house to attack the fire, had to evacuate, fearing the building would collapse.

Crews with Milford Ladder 1, on one side, and Franklin Tower 1, on the other, drenched the house with 1,600 gallons of water per minute for about an hour until the flames finally were extinguished.