NORTHEAST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - Firefighters battled a fire that broke out overnight inside an apartment in Northeast Miami-Dade.
7News cameras captured residents standing in front of a seven-story building at the Canongate condominium complex at 800 NE 195th St., just after 5 a.m. on Tuesday.
The flames ignited inside of a fourth-story unit just after 3:30 a.m., forcing all of the residents out of their homes.
Multiple Miami-Dade Fire Rescue units rushed to the scene, as residents had only seconds to evacuate.
Resident Simone Griffin told 7News she smelled smoke once she heard the alarms.
“I just grabbed my robe, grabbed my phone, grabbed his pills, and we just went down,” she said, “but when we go out in the bigger hallway, that’s when we saw the smoke, ’cause we’re at 510, so it’s the floor above it, saw the smoke coming up, so that’s all we could see, and we just take the staircase.”
Griffin joined dozens of residents as they navigated the smoky conditions and made their way out of the building and onto the street.
“I’m like, ‘Am I going down into the fire or what?’ ‘Cause I say, when you’re going to the hallway or the staircase, the exit, you see more smoke,” she said. “And you hardly can breathe because it’s so flustered in there.”
MDFR crews arrived within minutes, worked to contain the blaze and made sure residents got out safely.
“On arrival, we encountered heavy fire and smoke coming out of the fourth story of this apartment,” said MDFR Operations Division Chief Michael Eng. “Crews had to quickly locate and extinguish the fire, but the challenge was the amount of smoke, which required an evacuation as well.”
Cellphone video captured flames near the unit’s balcony. 7News cameras later showed the balcony covered in soot.
MDFR officials said this was a two-alarm blaze that remains under investigation. It’s unknown how many units sustained damage.
There were no reports of injuries, but a neighbor told 7News that the dog belonging to the family who lives in the unit that caught fire did not survive.
By daybreak, residents were slowly being allowed back inside their units, as investigators combed through the charred apartment to determine what sparked the flames.
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