MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A fire erupted Wednesday morning at a home in southwest Miami-Dade.
“It was very big. We had to have multiple points of attack. We had to basically have multiple lines of operation,” Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Pedro Rodriguez said.
Miami-Dade firefighters were called to the home in the 16000 block of Southwest 100th Court around 2:30 a.m. and found an electrical pole that had fallen.
The battalion chief said it’s unclear whether the pole fell before the fire or after the fire already started.
Neighbors said they woke up to the sound of sirens and the smell of thick smoke. They said they could feel the heat.
“When we looked out the window, we saw the house on fire,” Micheline Aristid said.
Neighbors said FPL crews had been in the neighborhood last week and they’ve had intermittent power outages ever since.
“Yesterday we had a blackout for a few minutes -- we’ve been having blackouts,” Aristid said.
Neighbor Erika Parker speculates the fire started from the downed power line, but investigators have not yet confirmed that.
“This whole block, the light has been going on and off,” Parker said.
One fire unit returned around 6:30 a.m. to put out part of the fire that may have reignited after early crews left.
The American Red Cross is providing support to the family of three that was affected by the blaze.
According to the Red Cross, they are providing “emergency financial assistance, health and mental health services, one-on-one support to connect people to available recovery assistance and will continue to provide additional support to the family to meet their disaster-caused needs.”
The cause of the fire is under investigation.