Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Local residents who witnessed the four-alarm fire at Paul William Beltz in Buffalo share their reactions.
Matt Battistella was on the 13th floor of the Guauranty Building yesterday afternoon when fire alarms started going off.
"We came down the stairwell, I think by floor two, I noticed the railings getting a little warm. Two, of course, of our excellent firemen got us out of there real quick and got us to safety across the street. At that point is where I noticed how aggressive the smoke really was from the other side of the building," stated Battistella.
Battistella says he didn't notice any smoke until he got to the lower floors.
"It was pretty hard by by the second floor. We really got the smoke and once we got to the ground level, it was significant. Significant enough where me and my coworkers were coughing a little bit."
Becky and Kathleen say they were sitting in their car on Ohio St. when a flash of lightning caught their attention. When they looked up, they could see a plume of smoke.
"She said, 'what is that?' I said, 'Oh, that's just a cloud.' The more we looked at it, the closer we got to the city. 'Boy, that's a fire. That's a fire.'"