Witnesses describe the moments an East El Paso home that was destroyed by a fire went up in flames

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Jorge Rodriguez stood across the street, watching as firefighters battled a house fire that destroyed his neighbors' East El Paso home.

Although Rodriguez does not know his neighbors personally, he said he lives just a few houses down. That's why he was able to smell the smoke before emergency crews arrived on scene.

"Based on how it looked like, it started burning from like the inside, and then it started working outside," said Rodriguez. "It kind of looked like lava, or like fire coming out everywhere... It was very bright, red, dark. It was very vibrant."

After the fire was put out, the house was left with its roof caved in, its garage and the car in it completely burned, its front windows shattered, and its front door torn off its hinges.

El Paso Fire Department officials said it took about an hour for them to knock out the fire, which escalated quickly as the roof had caved in less than ten minutes after they got there.

"It was this big show of this huge flame coming out and like, there was so much water that they were throwing out to the house, but it didn't stop until so much afterwards," said Rodriguez.

Fire officials said they are still investigating the cause of the fire.