WATCH: New Brunswick Firefighters Battle Fire, Freezing Cold Thursday Night

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ - A fire Thursday night at an apartment building at 84 Throop Avenue in New Brunswick has unfortunately left 42 people homeless Friday morning, city officials said. Nearly two dozen people, 21 in all, had to be rescued by New Brunswick firefighters on one of the coldest nights of the year.

The fire broke out at 7 p.m. and residents told NBC New York they could hear people screaming "Fire, fire, fire!" Residents ran out of the building with just the clothes on their backs. Families and children had to be kept warm in a heated bus as the fire raged, and firefighters had to endure frost bite and ice-slicked sidewalks as they tried to extinguish the blaze.

The fire gutted apartments in the three-story, multi-family build. The American Red Cross and the city of New Brunswick are providing the 42 now-homeless people with accommodations.