BOSTON -- A nine-alarm fire tore through a 10-story condominium building in Boston on Wednesday afternoon and one firefighter was injured.

The fire was reported at 483 Beacon St. shortly before 2 p.m. Residents were evacuated from the building. Four people had to be rescued from the building, and a firefighter was hospitalized with chest pains, according to Boston Fire Chief Ronald Keating.

Flames and smoke raced out of broken windows on the seventh floor.

"There were flames shooting out of the Mass Ave. side of the building. It was pretty intense. They had some trouble getting the ladder trucks up there because the flames were coming out so strong," witness Maureen Toomey said.

Rescue One firefighter Joe Hughes said he heard a woman's faint screams from a stairwell.

"She was taking a lot of smoke. So, I told her to grab my neck, (and I) brought her down eight floors," he said.

Rescue One's Scott Coyne helped save a woman who went into cardiac arrest on the roof.

"I feel like I'm happy to be at the right place at the right time," he said.

Firefighters could be seen with ladders, entering units on the seventh floor.

"A window had been broken out, and (a resident) was standing next to the building, and then I could see a firefighter standing next to her," Toomey said.

Keating said it was not clear how many of the building's 174 residents were home with the fire started.

"The other problem we're having is the stairways are very narrow. So we're having trouble getting up and down," Keating said.

Fire officials said the fire was mostly contained to the seventh floor of the building. The building does not have sprinklers because it was built in the late 1800s and is not required to have a sprinkler system, Keating said.

"From what I heard, the fire started on the seventh floor and went up," said a resident who lives in the building. "It used to be a hotel, and they converted it into apartment buildings."

The building is located between Massachusetts Avenue and Hereford Street in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood. Traffic was being diverted around the area, and officials said the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge will be closed until 7 p.m.

NewsCenter 5 and TheBostonChannel.com will have more information when it becomes available.