A building at 97 Clinton Street in Albany was being demolished Thursday afternoon after an early morning fire. The building was significantly damaged and the interior is collapsing, inspectors said.

The fire took broke out just before 3 a.m.

Residents of the area saw people who lived in the building jumping out of the windows on the upper floors to escape the flames.

Resident Nicholas Dayter described the conditions inside.

“When I opened my door, I felt that heavy smoke coming,” Dayter said. “So I tried to work my way to the front door to open the front door to let some of the smoke out, when I noticed the whole kitchen was ignited in flames. So once I did that, I tried to work my way back to try to get the dog and retrieve the dog and get the dog out, and it was the heavy smoke and the fire was so severe that I had to jump out the window and come down here.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation.