A fire ripped through a six-story apartment building in Chinatown early Tuesday, killing a man and a woman while injuring 27 other people before it was brought under control.

Four building residents were seriously injured in the blaze, including some who jumped from windows on the fifth and sixth floors. Eight firefighters suffered minor injuries. The early morning 4-alarm blaze brought an army of New York City Firefighters to the scene.

The two unidentified deceased victims were found in the same second-floor apartment. The 32-year-old man was dead on arrival at a local hospital; the 33-year-old woman died Tuesday afternoon at another hospital.

The Red Cross said 60 families - estimated at more than 200 people - were evacuated from the building and two others nearby. The agency was trying to find Mandarin interpreters because many of the residents speak only Chinese.

Some 180 firefighters were deployed in the bitter cold battling the blaze, which started on the second floor at 22 James St. and quickly shot up through the building, said Fire Department Chief of Operations Patrick McNally.

At times, fire could be seen shooting out of the windows while smoke billowed near the roof.

"People were yelling and screaming from the fire escape. They were crying for help," Mary Liu, 29, told the New York Daily News. "One lady jumped out of the building. It was chaos."

Fire officials said three people jumped from windows, but all of them survived.

The fire, which started on the second floor, was difficult to control because the building was so old, like so many in the historic lower Manhattan neighborhood, McNally said.

Firefighters were also hindered by fierce winds, which gusted up to 30 mph. In temperatures that dropped to 22 degrees overnight, water from fire hoses froze when it hit the ground, McNally said.

By midmorning, the blaze was under control but the red-brick building was blackened from fire and smoke. McNally said the interior damage was extensive, with the roof and some of the floors partially collapsed. No other buildings were damaged.

Hundreds of residents took shelter in a nearby community center, some wearing shoes but no socks and winter hats. Many put their heads on tables and slept sitting up.

The Fire Department determined Tuesday afternoon that a faulty extension cord sparked a blaze.

Among the injured are eight firefighters and three people who jumped from windows on the fifth and sixth floors.

The city Department of Buildings issued the owner a violation last month, saying the building had unsafe electrical wiring. The department says the owner hadn't notified the agency about whether the violation had been corrected.

A fourth-floor building resident in her 30s said she was woken up by other roommates in the middle of the night.

"We could feel the heat coming from the floorboards below," said the woman, who wouldn't give her name because she was afraid of immigration enforcement.

"There was smoke everywhere. We couldn't see. ... There was a lot of screaming downstairs and commotion. I was very scared."

She and her two small children had to climb out the window and down a fire truck ladder to safety.

Ping Wong, a resident in a neighboring building, got a knock on the door from police around 3 a.m. "There was a terrible burning smell," she said. "And they told us to get out. I was scared."

Wong and her neighbors rushed down the stairs, but she said it was a very orderly evacuation.

Jacquelyn Gallo, who lives on the fifth floor of the building that caught fire, said she was asleep when the fire broke out. She told the Daily News she forced open a window in her apartment and climbed onto the fire escape. She said about 15 people were on the roof.

"Everyone was helping everyone," she said. "We climbed on the roof and jumped on the next building."

The building is on a short residential street near the Manhattan Bridge in the heart of Chinatown, not far from the main artery Canal Street, where vendors hawk everything from knockoff handbags to live frogs and bootleg DVDs.

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Slideshow   AP 2/24/09

Slideshow   NY Daily News 2/24/09