Fire rips through Flatbush apartment building

More than a dozen Flatbush families are without a home Saturday after a fire left part of their Clarendon Road building in ruins.
Fire officials say the fire started in the basement of the building around 9 a.m. Residents say they awoke to thick black smoke rising throughout the building. Eleven people were rushed to the hospital, mostly with minor injuries. Three of those were firefighters and most of the others were children.
The first-floor apartments suffered the most damage in the fire. Electricity and gas was turned off at the building. The Red Cross is helping families displaced by the fire.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.