BAYONNE (WABC) --
Fire investigators are going through the charred remains of a New
Jersey home, trying to figure out what caused the fire that killed a
couple, and left four families homeless."I'm still shaking," said Robert Mitchell.
More than a dozen other people who called the Bayonne apartment building on East 21st Street home are also shaking.
"It was raining fire everywhere - it was a nightmare," Mitchell adds.
Mitchel tells Eyewitness News that he and his 8-year-old son Dillon may not be alive if it were not for his roommate watching late night TV just after 3:30 Saturday morning.
"He heard 2 popping sounds, and ran out to see what it was, and said there were just flames shooting out of the third floor, and he came in and obviously woke us up," says Mitchell.
Bayonne Fire Chief Greg Rogers tells Eyewitness News that the flames were so intense that it was difficult for rescues. Once part of the roof started to go, it was even more difficult to put out the flames.
"It burnt through and collapsed and came down at the same time that people were trying to evacuate the building, so some of the victims were temporarily trapped on the porch," says Rogers.
Although the Chief does not know the cause of the fire, or exactly where it started, initially the flames were concentrated on the second and third floors.
"We were asleep, and my mom heard like a 'pop'," said Patricia Angelini.
Angelini, her husband, kids, parents and grandmother live on the second floor.
"My mother yelled for my husband, and the next thing you know we were all up, trying to get out," Angelini adds, "flames were everywhere, the building was filled with smoke."
Unfortunately, that was the last time Angelini heard from her mother. Fire crews say both her mother and her father, who is an amputee did not make it out.
Later Saturday evening, Bayonne Fire Department confirmed that the victims were identified as 65-year-old Frances Angelini and 64-year-old Robert Angelini.
Mitchell says it was hard for Robert Angelini to get around.
"I helped carry him upstairs quite a few times," he said.
The victims' daughter also says their family lost another relative just two months ago, making this an especially hard time for them. Besides the 4 families that lived in the building, another 4 families in that building are being helped by the Red Cross, because of damage there as well.