WATERFORD — Officials have reopened Broad Street this afternoon after crews demolished two buildings destroyed by fire Monday.

Fast-moving flames ripped through the buildings early Monday evening, leaving more than 30 people homeless and entire blocks of the historic village enveloped in thick plumes of grey smoke.

More than 100 firefighters from at least 10 departments battled the blaze that broke out at the rear of an apartment house at 100-102 Broad St. around 5:30 p.m. Whipping wind gusts then spread the flames to a single-family home at 104 Broad St. and caused smoke damage to numerous other nearby buildings in the vicinity of Lock 2 of the Erie Canal.

Village officials said at least one firefighter suffered minor injuries when the apartment building collapsed, less than an hour after the blaze ignited. All of the residents living in the 10-unit structure were able to flee the structure before the fire spread.

Red Cross volunteers had identified 31 people left homeless by the blaze, but this number could increase. Spokeswoman Christine Powers said smoke damage may keep some residents from returning immediately to their homes.

“The numbers may grow if there’s a lot of smoke damage,” she said. “This is going to be a long haul.”

Mayor J. Bert Mahoney said the wooden structure was more than a century old and contained plenty of material to fuel the stubborn fire. He said the blaze leaves yet another large gap along the village’s main drag.

“It’s a big hole on Broad Street we’re going to have to fill,” he said from the scene, as two ladder trucks continued to douse the flames.

The fire also gutted the 104 Broad St. home of Kevin Farrar, a long-time firefighter with the village’s Northside Fire District. It was unclear Monday whether the building could be saved.

Investigators from the Saratoga County Fire Coordinator’s office were on scene, but weren’t available for comment late Monday evening.

For much of the evening, the village’s streets remained cloaked in a thick fog of noxious smoke. The massive amount of water trained on the blaze filled the streets with sooty liquid, causing inch-deep pools in some areas.

Mahoney said the flames spread so quickly the dispatcher receiving the call could see the flames from Town Hall, more than two blocks away. He said the smoke generated from the fire made it difficult to navigate the streets.

“At times, you couldn’t even see the church,” he said gesturing to the St. Mary of Assumption’s steeple several blocks away.

The blaze was the second to hit Broad Street in the past five years. In April 2003, a massive fire tore through two residential buildings across the street from the structures that burned Monday.

Fire investigators later charged Edward Post with setting that fire, which left 16 people homeless. Post later pleaded guilty to a single count of second-degree arson and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

As bad as the fire was, Mahoney said it didn’t compare to a huge blaze in November 1973. The mayor, then a fire captain with Waterford Fire Department, recalled how the blaze leveled two three-story buildings.

“The back of Town Hall even caught fire,” he said.