A fallen tree knocked live power lines onto parked cars at The Grand apartments on Frontage Road on Monday, August 3, sparking a fire that destroyed two vehicles and left hundreds of residents without electricity during the summer heat.

The Cherry Hill Fire Department said crews arrived at approximately 3:31 p.m. to find two vehicles fully engulfed in flames. A third car sustained damage. But because the downed lines remained energized, firefighters could not attack the blaze. They stood by for roughly 90 minutes until utility crews de-energized the wires, according to 6abc.

No injuries were reported.

The outage hit four high-rise apartment buildings, a nearby residential building and a senior living community that switched to emergency power while crews worked. Fire officials estimated electricity would return to the high-rises within two to three hours, with other properties restored sooner.

Resident Jonathan Walker told 6abc he heard an explosion around 3:30 p.m. before the power surged and the lights went out. Jason Klink, another resident of the complex, said he saw the tree on the car fully engulfed in flames and called the scene terrifying. With no air conditioning on a summer afternoon, Klink said apartments on the sun-facing side of the building grew dangerously hot, and residents worried about pets left inside.

Among those affected was Air Force veteran Andre Dossantos, whose car was damaged in the fire. Dossantos uses the vehicle to drive his wife to chemotherapy treatments in New York.

"I need the car for my wife," Dossantos told 6abc. "She's going through chemo cancer treatments, so we go up to New York for that."

Bystanders stopped Dossantos from approaching his vehicle because of the live wires on the ground. Once the scene was made safe, he was able to move the car to another parking space and said he hopes the damage is repairable.

Fire officials said they could not determine what caused the tree to fall and could not definitively attribute it to weather. The Cherry Hill Fire Department confirmed the response on its official Facebook page, noting that a tree limb fell on power lines and landed on parked vehicles.