LAWRENCE | It was 2:30 a.m., and Officer Robert Moody was patrolling on Parker Street. A call from two emergency medical technicians alerted him to a building on fire just up the street from where he was.

He arrived to find what he described as a "horror movie."

At least one building was engulfed in flames, and a wall of fire was starting to spread backward throughout the block. Within three hours, at least nine buildings containing 26 apartments were ablaze.

"I opened my window and it looked like hell outside," said Elias Rivera, who lives on Springfield Street.

In all, some 200 people clad only in pajamas, bathrobes and wrapped in blankets were forced outside into the 12-degree weather, which felt more like zero because of the wind.

Only one person suffered minor injuries in what is being described as the biggest fire to hit Lawrence since the 1995 explosion at Malden Mills that consumed the 29-acre campus. Twenty-seven people were injured in that inferno.

Yesterday's fire left some 40 families without homes. Many were taken to the neighborhood school, South Lawrence East, for warmth, comfort and help.

"People have lost their homes and suffered a significant loss. But the greatest loss we can suffer is the loss of life," said the Rev. Robert Conole, the Methuen Fire Department's chaplain and pastor of Sacred Hearts Parish in Bradford.

Arriving at 3 a.m., Conole stayed at the fire for hours, sometimes praying silently, and offering encouragement to victims, police and firefighters.

With just a single minor injury reported in such a massive inferno, Conole remarked, "I would have to say God's hand was in this."

State Fire Marshal Steven Coan was on scene yesterday and said it was too early to pinpoint the cause of the fire, but did describe the blaze as "suspicious."

It started in what was the former Millennium nightclub at 44 Parker St. (Route 114), which was under renovation.

Owner Geraldo Torres, 45, of Methuen bought the building for about $260,000 and started renovating it about two months ago. He said he planned to put in a restaurant and bar, with either a Mexican or Italian theme. He and his wife, Nereyda Trempe, had been doing much of the work and had already spent about $300,000 on the project.

He did not have insurance on the building.

"We made a mistake. We started renovating before getting insurance," Torres said.

Chief Peter Takvorian said the interior of the building had been gutted and was just a large, open space.

"It was like a matchstick," said city Building Inspector Gregory Arvanitis.

First on the scene

The fire was first spotted by EMTs Brian Prendergast and Christopher Baker. The two EMTs for Patriot Ambulance were headed to a call on the north side of the city.

They took a route they travel often from the Market Street headquarters. But as they pulled up to the stop light at Parker and Market streets, they saw a fire.

"It was just a big ball of flames, eight feet off the roof," said Baker, 25.

They continued on to their call while Moody was dispatched to the scene.

"It was like something out of a horror movie," Moody said.

Police Sgt. John Dushame arrived next, and along with arriving firefighters, the officers ran from door to door, alerting neighbors and telling them to get out of the house.

He called the chaos a "tornado of fire."

"The wind was actually carrying the embers over to South Union Street," Dushame said. South Union Street is two blocks away.

Takvorian said one of his deputies arrived just as the fire broke out and found two buildings on fire. He realized his car was too close and by the time he backed up, the fire had spread to five buildings. Takvorian said buildings were only 6 to 8 feet apart.

Dushame said he and his colleagues ran door to door on Market Street, getting to homes just before the fire started to make its way down the block. They had to force some of the doors open to alert sleeping residents inside.

"Everybody was in their pajamas and socks," said Dushame, a Lawrence police officer for 15 years. "It was fast moving. It was the biggest fire I've seen since Malden Mills."

Battling the fire and ice

With temperatures hovering around 12 degrees and a wind chill making it feel below zero, water running from the hoses turned the roads into skating rinks. Thick ice formed on firefighters and their clothing as they tried to knock down the fire.

But with the ice, there was fire | flames so hot it melted one side of a firetruck. Takvorian said firefighters turned the hose on Engine 9 at the corner of Parker and Springfield streets to cool it down.

The heat from the blaze was so intense it singed vinyl siding on many area buildings. Dome streetlights across from the nightclub melted into half-moon shapes.

"I stayed warm because I was close to the fire | there was plenty of it to go around," Takvorian said.

Another problem was burning embers flying in the arctic winds, landing as far as a quarter-mile away on Farnum Street.

The walls of burning buildings folded like paper and were devoured by the orange flames that grew higher with each piece that fell into the inferno.

At 5 a.m., the flames had jumped to a tenth building.

At 5:15 a.m., Takvorian said he was concerned about homes on Springfield Street and repositioned trucks to that area.

By 6 a.m., there were 14 buildings on fire.

Firefighters were brought in from 12 communities, including Salem, N.H., Tewksbury, Chelmsford, Georgetown, Reading, Methuen, Andover and Middleton.

Takvorian also viewed the fire scene from above, courtesy of a state police helicopter late yesterday morning. The pilot zoomed in and using infrared cameras checked on various hot spots. The chief said it was easy to see areas where small fires were still burning from natural gas hookups.

"We are very fortunate," Takvorian said afterward. "This fire could have easily taken down two blocks."

Also on scene yesterday were investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Detectives spoke to one witness who was stopped at a red light at the corner of Market and Parker streets about 2 a.m. She told investigators she heard a "popping sound" like gunshots and saw the tarps on top of scaffolding blowing. She did not see flames or anyone leaving the building.

Police Chief John Romero said the sounds the woman heard likely meant the fire was already burning, and the heat was causing things to burst.

"So when she drove by, it was probably going inside," Romero said.

That potentially means the fire had a 30-minute head start on the firefighters, because the first alarm wasn't sounded until around 2:30 a.m.

The evacuees and their loss

Evacuees were first brought to a makeshift Red Cross shelter at nearby Jackson Lumber until a permanent shelter could be found.

Other victims were moved in city buses to the Cor Unum Meal Center, only half a mile from the blaze. They waited there until the Red Cross opened up a shelter at South Lawrence East School.

One of those buildings consumed was owned by the state and used for transitional housing for nine mentally disabled people. They were all evacuated safely and taken to the Red Cross shelter.

Also consumed were three homes built by Habitat for Humanity.

Paul Reddick owns Lawrence Pumps, a business that employs 130 people, right next door to the fire. His building was not affected and many of his employees showed up to work yesterday, but Reddick sent them home. His company donated the land for the Habitat for Humanity homes.

The aftermath

Smoke continued to rise as firefighters sprayed water on the charred rubble throughout the morning. Gov. Deval Patrick visited around 11:30 a.m.

Patrick passed nearly two dozen firefighters quietly walking away from the fire in the opposite direction.

"Thank you, guys. Thank you," Patrick said to the group, as they passed. The men were silent and looked completely exhausted.

Seconds later, a middle-aged man standing on the sidewalk threw his arms around the governor, hugging him and thanking him for coming to Lawrence.

"We will do whatever we can to help you rebuild," Patrick said after a 10-minute meeting with city officials.

Meanwhile, over at the shelter, eight volunteers from the Trauma Intervention Program of the Merrimack Valley did their best to comfort fire victims. Many of the displaced were shocked, scared and anxious, said Jayan Landry, TIP CEO and executive director. TIP volunteers tried to provide "emotional first aid" to the displaced, many of whom suffered pre-existing mental health problems. Others did their best to keep small children busy, playing games and reading stories, "on a long, cold, scary day," Landry said.

At a minimum, the shelter will stay open until 5 p.m. today, Landry said.

Mayor Michael Sullivan pointed to the Mother's Day flood of 2006 and the lessons the city learned about survival then. That knowledge will be applied now as the city pulls together to help the fire victims, he said.

"We'll rebuild this city," he said.

State Sen. Susan Tucker said officials will meet in the mayor's office at 8:30 a.m. today to coordinate their response.

"This is a time when people have to come together," Tucker said. "Lawrence is good at that."

"This is very basic," Patrick told reporters outside the fire victims' shelter. "It's finding passports and driver's licenses and papers to help them establish identity and credit. And all of this is very, very basic. It will take time. The most important message for these families and for this community is that their city government, their state government and their community will stand by them as long as it takes to get them back on their feet."

Staff writers Drake Lucas, Zach Church, Katie McMahon and Gretchen Putnam contributed to this report.