SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Wednesday afternoon on a Syracuse rooftop overlooking North Salina Street, Mike Musik and Kim Gridley sat watching the 700 block burn for hours.

"I mean look at the street now. It's full of fire trucks and burning buildings," said Musik.

"It was pretty intimidating watching it burn the way it did. The flames were shooting about twenty feet about the rooftops," said Gridley.

The fire was reported just after 2:30 p.m 

"As they got to the third floor, the heat of the fire was so intense, that the fire had such a head start that we had to retreat back," said Syracuse Fire Chief Michael Monds.

With no current indication of what started it or where exactly it began, the fire engulfed four buildings on the block.

Brick, aged, altered and connected at least by the roofs, the buildings are tough terrain to battle a fire. Unfortunately structural obstacles mixed with unfavorable weather made for a recipe perfect to keep a fire burning.

"When they arrived there was a heavy wind gust so there was a combination of reasons as to why the fire started and once it made it to the roof it went from north to south to east to west," said Monds.

The buildings are mixed-use -- comprised of residential units and businesses. At this time it's unclear how many people and businesses were displaced.

A total of four buildings on the stretch were directly impacted and severely damaged. Two others likely have smoke damage according to firefighters.

At this point firefighters say there are no reported injuries.

"At one point the carbon monoxide levels on the street was like 60 parts per million. It was a very dangerous situation, not only on the fire building, but we called in a lot of resources to make sure everyone on the block was going to be safe," said Monds.

Firefighters say they continued to try and evacuate the surrounding area as people gathered to watch. But Musik and Gridley stayed.

"No that's it. I just feel bad for the people who are displaced today," said Gridley.

"It's a sad thing. There's people who got their buildings burned up. It's not something you wish on anybody," said Musik.