LAWRENCE | Terry Crawley, 42, ran out onto Parker Street dressed in nothing but a terry-cloth bathrobe, matching navy blue socks and slippers.

His 52 Parker St. apartment was one of the first buildings the flames jumped to and quickly devoured. He had been sleeping at the time, told to get out by a firefighter banging on his door.

"I just ran right out," he said, and looked next door to see a building in flames. "It was very scary. A big ball of fire. Like somebody had doused some gasoline on it and lit a match."

He was brought to a city bus, wrapped in blanket and sipping a tiny cup of hot chocolate courtesy of the Red Cross. About 5:30 a.m., the bus brought him to the temporary shelter set up at Cor Unum Meal Center, a half a mile from the blaze.

He didn't know what he would do next.

"It looks like the whole building is gone," he said.

That same story was echoed over and over again by the 180 people who lost their homes in a fire that reduced 26 apartment units to piles off ash.

Fast asleep, people were awaken by firefighters or police officers or neighbors banging on their front doors. In several cases, police officers had to knock down doors to wake people up, as the fire jumped fast from triple-deckers packed tightly together in the neighborhood.

They didn't have time to take anything with them. And in the end, they had nothing left, and so many had no where to go.

"I went to the window, and it looked like hell outside," said Elias Rivera, who escaped from 16-18 Springfield St. with his stepdaughters and his wife. He was waiting at Cor Unum for a shelter to open.

At 12 Springfield St., Jannette Ayala, 19, and her boyfriend Louis Taveras, 29 were awoken by their landlord Santos Acevedo.

Ayala ran into to her children's room, where 2-year-old Jeremiah and 1-year-old Naimam were sleeping soundly. She lifted the children from their cribs, bundled them in thin, worn-out comforters, ran out the door and boarded the bus to the shelter.

"I went to the kids' room and I could see the fire," Ayala said. "I didn't even get their shoes on."

They doubted anything was left of their home.

"It's burning now," Ayala said.

She had no idea where her family would go. Just as she said that aloud at Cor Unum, Jannelle Bois, 66, of Lawrence, a cook at the shelter came over.

She offered to take them in until they found shelter. She said she ran a day care and had five grandchildren, so there would be plenty of clothes for the kids, and even some toys for them to play with.

"I don't know them," she said. "I'm doing it because I like to help people."

Help was something people everywhere were ready to provide.

People had a hot meal, warm blankets and even clothes because two workers at Cor Unum | Rita Jensen and Sandra Sharpe | arrived at the soup kitchen for a typical day's work at 4:45 a.m. They looked out the window to the block just beyond the bridge and saw the sky ablaze. They ran down to the fire and told Red Cross workers to start bringing people to the shelter. They'd cook for them.

"We couldn't just stand here," Sharpe said.

Family members and neighbors who lived streets away rushed to the neighborhood to help.

Victor Cruz was sleeping in his Foster Street home and smelled fire. He left his home and ran out onto Parker Street, where he saw the buildings ablaze.

"I was sleeping and I smelled fire. Now, I see fire all the way to the alley, Cruz said as he watched the abandoned building where it all started collapse under the flames. "I started waking people and knocking on doors."

Several of those whose homes were destroyed took shelter with family members.

Tara Mays and Mendessa Barthelmy went to 270 Market St. to help evacuate Barthelmy's sister Desiree, her husband, Robert, two children, and the family dog. Mays is the family's niece. Both women could see the fire from their homes.

Knowing that her family lived on Market Street, the pair ran from Beacon Hill Road to see if they could help them get anything out. Mays said she saw people running out of their homes with no shoes on and jumping in their cars to get as far away from the fast moving blaze as they could.

"It was already too late" to save anything, she said.

As they stood in middle of Parker Street in the pre-dawn hours, they watched as fire devoured the Market Street home.

Young Robert, 13, said he and his father Robert Sr. were up late playing on their new computer. They heard a boom and ran to the window to see the building two doors down from them ablaze.

"We just got the computer on Saturday," young Robert said, as he watched his home burn down.