NEW YORK- Just after 11 a.m. Monday a two alarm fire broke out on the fifth floor of an apartment building located at 71 Vermilyea Avenue.

“We couldn’t breath, it was a lot of smoke. I didn’t hear no alarms. We just went down as fast as we could," said Yireth Germosen, a building tenant.

The blaze tore through apartments on the fifth and sixth floors in one part of the building.

Residents say because they heard no alarms, they had to rely on each other to warn neighbors of the flames.

“I came upstairs to look for them and I knocked on the door and that is why they got saved because I got them to come down the stairs," said Eduardo Luna, a building tenant.

Three firefighters and two residents suffered minor injuries and were treated at local hospitals.

Nineteen families had to be relocated by the Red Cross because of the damage left by the flames.

Some families lost everything, while others unable to stay in their apartments because of safety concerns with the building’s structure.

"I can get that back. Thank God everyone is good. No one is injured, no one is dead. All I was worried about was my kids life, my brothers, me and trying to take everyone out as much as I could," Germosen said.

Elected officials say no one from the building’s management company showed up after the fire. They’re now calling on the city to step in.

"The owners are not here, there in no super here and I feel that when these things happen in other areas, especially the middle class community anyone who owns property they show up," said City Councilman Ydanis Rodríguez.

Elected officials also want city agencies to do a full inspection of the building to make sure it is safe for all residents, even those not impacted by the fire.

The FDNY is still working to determine a cause.