ALBION, N.Y. — An investigation is underway following an explosion and garage fire in Orleans County that spread to three homes.

The flames broke out Satuday afternoon at the corner of West State Street and East Academy Street in the village of Albion. The garage where the fire started is located in the middle of the three homes.

An Orleans County man is being treated at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester for injuries he suffered in the incident.

It was such an unusual sight that visitors came all day to see it for themselves.

"This is bad, this is really bad," Medina resident Ann Layhee said. "I’ve seen some really bad fires in my time, and this tops the cake."

Firefighters say they heard two explosions coming from the garage while they were on scene. Because of that, Monroe County Bomb Squad technicians were called in to make sure the scene was safe.

"It was almost like a bomb," Javier said. "The flames were big, sticking out from the house six or eight feet."

Ed Morton is an Albion firefighter, and was there.

"We’ve never had three houses on fire at the same time ever," Morton said. "There was so much commotion, with everything else going on around here. It was a major, major fire."

The age of the homes and their proximity posed a problem for firefighters.

"That's the problem. The difficulty we always face with these kinds of structures that are really close together is there's very little room to work,” said Albion Fire Department Lt. John Papponetti. “The exposures are pretty eminent and these houses are fairly old and a lot of them are broken up and cordoned off and segmented, so getting into the area where there might be a fire takes a lot of effort to get hoses and access into these areas." 

"All I can say is God Bless nothing happened to anybody, that’s my theory," Layhee added. "People just have to be so careful."

At least one of the homes will be demolished this week.