LAWRENCE - Christian Landor stood watching a wall of fire ravage his neighbors' homes and feared his house on Foster Street would be next.

"It was like God was throwing fireballs," the 22-year-old said. "We were worried our house was going to be on fire."

His home was spared from the seven-alarm blaze that consumed almost an entire city block early Monday morning. More than a dozen buildings on Parker, Market and Springfield streets were either damaged or completely destroyed.

He, like many other neighbors, stood in the ash-filled neighborhood yesterday looking at the fire-hollowed husks of buildings still standing after one of the worst fires in Lawrence's history. They looked and thought "that could have been my house."

As the flames spread, Landor watched shivering evacuees in the streets as their homes were destroyed. He still feels bad for them, but those feelings are mingled with gratitude. No one was killed in the fire and only one person suffered minor injuries.

"Today I am feeling good for everybody," Landor said. "The neighborhood is all right."

Anna Medrano pointed to ashes outside her home, remains of the burning pieces of debris that landed in her yard at 34 Springfield St. She said she threw water on the roof during the fire to put out some of the embers that were carried there by the wind. She was evacuated from her home at 34 Springfield St., but she went back.

"I didn't want to leave the house," she said. "This is everything."

She doesn't know where she and her son, 19-year-old son Angel Gonzales, would have gone if her house had been taken by the fire. They don't have any family in Massachusetts.

Gonzales said he kept going down the street to see the fire and back to his home to make sure everything was OK. He was thankful that his girlfriend and 9-month-old daughter were in Haverhill for the evening and not out in the early morning cold.

"It's OK, we got through it," he said as he sat in the comfort of the living room yesterday with his family.

Monday began for the neighborhood with loud sirens racing to the fire and police pounding on doorways to evacuate residents.

Josefa Ulloa was asleep at her home a few buildings away from the fire when police woke her up at 2 a.m.

"I was in such a haze, I asked them, 'What did I do?' They told me to get out quickly because there was a fire," she said.

The raging flames spared the apartment building at 24 Springfield St. where Ulloa has lived for the past seven years.

As the fire ripped through buildings on Market, Parker and Springfield streets, Ulloa said neighbors helped each other by letting them sit in their cars to keep warm.

"Your heart breaks for all the people who have lost everything," she said. "Life is more important than the material objects because those can be replaced, but it's still sad to lose everything."

Constance Santiago and her roommate opened up their home at 21 Springfield St. to two other families, including three adults and four children, who had been evacuated and had nowhere to go. Santiago, 19, and her roommate gave the families food, clothes and a place to sleep for a few hours until they could figure out where to go.

Santiago had been evacuated, but the fire stayed on the opposite site of the street from Santiago's home, so by 5 a.m. she was allowed back inside.

She wasn't so sure at 2:30 a.m. when she ran from the building with her son, her roommate and her roommate's daughter.

"It was crazy, the whole block was up in flames," Santiago said. "There were flames in the middle of the road. The fire was taking down buildings one by one. It looked like all the homes were going to go."

Some residents lived farther away in the neighborhood but wanted to help after they woke up to the sirens and smoke.

Javier Solivan, 25, said his home up the street wasn't in danger, but he came down the street at 5:30 in the morning to stomp out embers blowing by his friends' home on Springfield Street close to the fire.

"It's rough to look at," he said, glancing down the street at the devastation. He said he was surprised that no one was hurt, but some of his friends on Market Street lost their homes in the fire.

Kelly Martin, 29, and Sam Pillsbury, 27, couldn't see much beyond smoke and flames from their 87 Bailey St. home, a few streets away. But they could hear the fire engines and ambulances rushing to and from the fire.

"We were nervous," Martin said. "We were so scared."

The next day, they brought four bags of clothes, coats and a box of food to Lazarus house, to help their neighbors recover.

For Wendy Gardner, the neighborhood will never completely recover from the fire.

As she watched the buildings around her home on 13 Springfield Street melt away, she mourned the loss of pieces of the Immigrant City's history. She knows that some people think these old, crowded multi-family tenements are ugly and garish. To her, these homes are vital pieces of Lawrence's history, links to the past now lost forever.

"Our memories go, every time this happens," said Gardner, who worked at Malden Mills in 1995 during its devastating fire. "Whatever they put up is not going to be like what we had. I hate to see old houses burn."

Staff writer Yadira Betances contributed to this report.