FLORIDA CITY, FLA. (WSVN) - - A family escaped a fire that sparked at their Florida City home thanks, in part, to a neighbor yelling at them to get out of the house.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews responded to the scene along Northwest 14th Street and Fifth Avenue at approximately 4:25 a.m., Friday.
“Oh, my God. Thank God I was in the right place this morning at the right time, Lord,” neighbor Telshad Francis said.
Francis said he was walking his dog when he started screaming for his neighbors to exit the house due to the fire.
“It’s the same time every morning I walk my dog,” he said. “I feel like I had a calling this morning. I’m very proud and happy that I was up.”
Francis said he could not get to the home because it is surrounded by a gate.
“I was calling loud because I couldn’t get in the gate, so I yelled to the top of my lungs,” Francis said.
The father inside the home heard Francis yelling and alerted the rest of his family to get up.
“I was in bed. My husband actually came out because he heard the screams,” said homeowner Gisell Acosta. “He heard, ‘Get out! Get out!’ and he said, ‘Why?’ and when my husband came out there were fires already over the house. That’s when I got all my kids and everybody out.”
Cellphone video captured fierce flames and smoke erupting from the residence.
Acosta, her husband, a 13-year-old, a 15-year-old and a 76-year-old grandmother on oxygen were inside the home at the time of the fire.
“I had my mother on oxygen; we had to take her out,” Acosta said.
There were also seven dogs in the home.
All occupants were able to exit the house without injury.
“Thank God for that guy, my neighbor,” Acosta said. “Listen, I can’t complain about my neighbors here. I love them.”
Two mobile trailers in the home’s backyard were badly damaged as well as one of the children’s bedrooms, who was not home at the time.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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