Watch: Children Jump From Burning Building In Edgewater, New Jersey

A hookah lounge in Edgewater, New Jersey, went up in flames Monday, forcing the other occupants of the building to immediately evacuate.

The fire started around 7 p.m. EDT burning down Beyoglu, a restaurant and hookah lounge in a building on River Road, whose second floor hosts the Pro Arts Academy Dance Studio. The building also has a car wash and an auto body shop.

As the fire continued to spread to the lower levels of the building, people rushed with ladders to rescue youngsters trapped on the second floor — a valiant effort which was caught on camera.

Children are seen leaping from the burning building as flames licked their backs. While a couple of the youngsters try climbing down the ladder, one of them slips and falls, followed by the second one, as the ladder gives way.

The ladder is removed as rescuers realized there would not be enough time for all of them to climb down the ladder in time. Next, the girls are seen jumping from the second storey of the building. As the last girl dangles on the railing and finally drops down, both the victims and the rescuers scramble away from the danger zone.

No fatalities or serious injuries were reported in the fire. However, 10 to 15 people suffered minor injuries. The fire spread to a section of the palisades toward an apartment building on Gorge Road in Cliffside Park. The billowing smoke from the fire was visible in the Manhattan skyline.

Edgewater Wine & Spirit owner Tony Nehmi, one of the first people to reach the scene, said he was asking people if anyone was trapped in the building when he saw two girls pounding on a second-floor window. The room behind them was already filled with smoke.

"I just wanted to get those two girls out, I never would have lived with myself if they got hurt," Nehmi said, NJ reported.

Since they were unable to break the window, Nehmi took a ladder, climbed up to their level and smashed the glass to help them out.

"The flames were spreading so fast," Nehmi said. "I only had a couple of seconds to save them, there was no time."

Edgewater Mayor Michael Joseph McPartland applauded the bravery of Nehmi and a police officer for their exceptional efforts in rescuing the children during a press control.

Edgewater Fire Official Steve Curry confirmed the fire was under control. Although the cause of the fire was under investigation, Curry said preliminary reports indicate it might have started in the first floor of the building, where the car wash and the auto body shop was located.

Five people have been transported to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.