A fire that started Tuesday afternoon in Cambria County was still smoldering Tuesday night. Flames broke out in downtown Portage just before 3 p.m. and the fire continued to shoot through the roof for hours.

The sky above Portage Borough was filled with heavy black smoke on Tuesday afternoon as flames ripped through three buildings along Main Street. It's believed the fire started on the ground level of a large brick building at the corner of Caldwell Avenue, but it quickly spread to two nearby buildings.

"From what we can tell, it started on the ground floor and it ran the walls," explained Portage Fire Chief Raymond Lee. "Once it ran the walls it just got into the roof."

Crews had the fire under control for most of the night, but there were several times firefighters went inside only to be evacuated.

* "We did evacuate the building four times," said Lee. "Right now we're pretty much doing an exterior attack on the building with the aerial, just trying to keep everyone safe at the point because the building is not safe."

The cause of the fire is not yet known, but according to Lee, the building is owned by a couple from Altoona. There's only one man who lives inside and he told 6 News that he has no idea what could have started the fire because he wasn't home.

"I wasn't in the house at all," said Richard Turek who lived inside. "Good thing I left."

At least 10 different fire departments were on scene working together to get the fire under control, an effort commended by county officials.

"Whenever there's a fire, we're lucky to have resources… to have the manpower to be able to staff those resources," said Robbin Melnyk from Cambria County Emergency Management. "[We] have departments from Cambria and Blair County [here.]"

Crews were still on scene Tuesday night and it was expected they'd be there into the morning hours.

Officials tell 6 News that most of Main Street will remain closed until inspectors can determine whether or not the building needs to be torn down and that could take several days.