EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A fire Tuesday morning destroyed an East Cleveland home, causing the walls to collapse.

Firefighters had to run for safety when the vacant home fell to the ground, but that wasn't the only problem firefighters faced.

There was a scramble to find sufficient water pressure in hydrants to put out the flames, but the bigger danger is one that lurks in every neighborhood rocked by the foreclosure crisis, reported NewsChannel5's Curtis Jackson.

Firefighters said the blaze was caused by a squatter who was using a space heater to keep warm.

In a city with more than 2,000 vacant and abandoned homes, residents who live near the blight worry they are in the line of the next fire that rages out of control.

"This is everywhere, though. There are so many abandoned houses all over, and it's just hard I guess to get rid of," said resident Michelle Randall.

With the foreclosure crisis ravaging northeast Ohio, the danger of squatters trying to stay warm extends beyond East Cleveland, but the crisis is worse there.

Decades of government dysfunction has left East Cleveland without enough inspectors. So, houses with boarded and padlocked doors still have broken windows anyone can enter.

"We got hit not only by the foreclosure crisis in a very serious way, but we've been hit by the waste, management, incompetence, and corruption that has plagued East Cleveland for almost 20 years," said East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer.