MIAMI – A fire destroyed a two-story home in Miami’s Little Havana. Firefighters continued to douse the smoldering structure with water on Sunday morning.
Lt. Pete Sanchez, a spokesman for Miami Fire Rescue, said 25 trucks with more than 70 firefighters responded to the home on West Eighth Avenue near Flagler Street.
“It was challenging. There were some bars on the windows, some boards. There was also live wires in the back that kept arcing and sparking,” Sanchez said later adding, “When you’re dealing with a wood structure, it ignites rather quickly, it burns rather quickly, so that’s why you’ll see the intensity of the flames and the smoke.”
There was only one man inside the home and he made it out safely.
“Units fought this blaze for about an hour. It kept igniting, they would extinguish it, and it would ignite again,” Sanchez said. “At this point, conditions became unsafe inside and we pulled our firefighters out and went into defensive mode, which means that we fought the fire from outside using our aerial ladders and just pouring a lot of water into it.”