NORTH LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A woman and a child suffered injuries in a house fire in North Lauderdale overnight Friday, fire rescue officials said.
Four people were inside the home in the 8100 block of Southwest 11th Street when the blaze broke out just before 1 a.m.
Neighbors said the two injured victims, who fire officials said were taken to Broward Health North, were a mother and child. Authorities said they are expected to survive.
The majority of the damage was focused on the rear corner of the home. Flames tore through the roof.
Miguel Gonzalez, who was in the house at the time, called 911 and escaped, but his sister and niece were unable to get out.
“I tried to (go) inside, I was crawling, but part of the ceiling fell down, not in me, it was like in front of me,” Gonzalez said. “And all of that smoke went inside of me.”
Gonzalez said that his sister was placed into a medically-induced coma, while her 4-year-old is showing signs of improvement as of Friday afternoon, but remained in critical condition.
While officials with the city of North Lauderdale said a golf cart charging outside of the home may have sparked the fire, Gonzalez believes candles lit for the Colombian holiday of Dia de las velitas — or “Day of the Little Candles” in English, a holiday meant to celebrate the beginning of the Christmas season — may have been behind it.
Gonzalez said the family left the candles out and burning overnight.
“The people have to be more conscious about these kind of things,” he said. “You think that because you’re home, you can just let that be.”
A next-door neighbor said another neighbor woke her up in the middle of the night to alert her that there was a threat of fire, amid concerns that the flames would spread.
“It was terrifying in the middle of the night, you know, to get woken up out of a dead sleep to come out and see your neighbor’s house is burning like that,” neighbor Michelle Barandes said. “It was scary.”
The family is unable to return to the home; the American Red Cross is assisting them.