[Update 7:45 p.m.]: Everyone Reported Safe After 3-Alarm Fire in Newton

[7:45 p.m. update]: Everyone appears to be safe after a massively smoky fire in a three-family building at 10 Auburndale Avenue in West Newton early Wednesday evening.

The smoke and flames are out at the now partly charred building in West Newton after a three-alarm fire this evening, and everyone is safe, said Newton Fire Chief Bruce Proia. He told reporters that more than 40 firefighters, mostly from Newton but also a few from Waltham, came to battle the three-alarm blaze.

The first call came in just after 5 p.m, said Proia, and "you could see the smoke billowing from blocks away."

Proia added that an off-duty firefighter showed up first at the scene. Proia said a woman from the first-floor apartment met the firefighter at the door and told him there was a family in the second-story unit.

Proia said he then ran upstairs, kicked in the door, and rescued  two adults and one infant. Proia said the firefighter then ran up to the third floor and kicked in the door, but no one was home.

The fire chief said the only person unaccounted for was a first-floor resident who was at work at the time of the fire, and could not be reached.

Proia said two firefighters were taken to the hospital; he was unclear about the extend of their injuries.

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[7 p.m. update]: The smoke and flames are out at the now partly charred three-family building in West Newton after a three-alarm fire this evening, and everyone is safe.

That is according to Newton Fire Chief Bruce Proia, who told reporters outside 16 Auburndale Ave. that more than 40 firefighters, mostly from Newton but also a few from Waltham, came to battle the blaze. 

The first call came in just after 5 p.m, said Proia, and "you could see the smoke billowing from blocks away."

Prioa said everyone who had been in the building got out safely; at the time of the news conference, he said firefighters were just inside doing their "due diligence," to make sure no one else was inside the building.

According to Proia, two people are believed to have been inside the third-floor apartment; the fire appears to have started on the third-floor level, at the back of the building.

One firefighter was being treated for minor injuries.

Newton Patch is trying to confirm whether a firefighter broke down the front door to rescue one of the families in the building. Proia said an initial search of the building had to be stopped because the fire was too intense; firefighters went outside and then back in as soon as they could.

[6:30 p.m. update] Firefighters are still inside the residential building at 16 Auburndale Avenue in West Newton after a massively smoky three-alarm fire that brought seven firetrucks from Newton and Waltham. Newton Patch Editor Melanie Graham said the firefighters are throwing debris out of the third floor, where the fire appears to have started. A news conference is due to start shortly.

[From earlier this evening]: Seven firetrucks from Newton and Waltham are on hand to fight what was a massively smoky house fire at 16 Auburndale Avenue in West Newton.

There have been reports of people being trapped inside the grey, three-story residential building, a fact which Patch cannot confirm. But Waltham Patch Editor Ryan Grannan-Doll is on the scene, and reports seeing two ambulances; he saw one stretcher carried inside, but has not yet seen it come out.

Grannan-Doll says there are seven fire trucks at the scene: six fromm Newton, and one from Waltham. Ladder trucks are hosing water onto the house roof.

Auburndale Avenue is closed from the corner of Cherry and Auburndale to the fire; Newton Patch Editort Melanie Graham reports the road is also closed at Fernwood.