NORTHEAST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - Eight people have been displaced after a fire broke out inside of a Northeast Miami-Dade home.
The fire ignited near Northeast 25th Place and 182nd Terrace, at around 10:30 p.m., Tuesday.
“Only smoke, everywhere,” said Eduardo Antamirano, whose home was destroyed in the blaze. “On the bottom, on top.”
Antamirano and his family, including his young granddaughter, were home at the time.
A father who was inside the home at the time of the blaze tried putting the fire out with a hose.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews responded to the scene where it took them about five hours to put out the flames.
Investigators said there are three or four roofs that were built on top of the original roof, which made the fire difficult to extinguish.
“Difficult fire due to the layout of the house, multiple roofs, so there was damage to previous roofs, and they just built a roof over it, so there’s a lot of hidden spaces, which made it a bit more difficult to fight,” said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Christopher True. “It’s a deep-seated fire in an old structure that’s been renovated multiple times and had multiple roofs, so it was a little bit more difficult, a little bit more challenging than a normal fire.”
At around 5:45 a.m. Wednesday, the fire reignited, and rescue crews returned to the scene.
Antamirano and his family grabbed what they could from the home, as the second fire sparked. He said he was able to get some pots, pans and silverware, but most of his family’s belongings are gone.
“Really devastating because I think I lost everything,” he said. “It’s devastating because I work for several years very hard, but we are healthy, and that’s the most important, right?”
Antamirano said he and his family will be staying at another property owned by his landlord.
“We used Class A foam,” True said. “We made sure that all the areas that were affected — we’ve dug into the structure itself — it’s out.”
Just after noon, fire crews returned to the scene for a third time as the fire sparked once more.
No injuries were reported.
The American Red Cross is now helping the affected families.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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