HIALEAH, FLA. (WSVN) - Fierce flames ripped through an efficiency at in Hialeah, neighbors said, leading first responders to treat a woman at the scene.
Cellphone video captured the burning structure from a distance along the 300 block of East 65th Street, late Friday afternoon.
“Oh, my God,” a woman is heard saying in the video.
Neighbors said they scrambled out of their homes.
“The moment I turned and looked to the other side, I just see a fire,” said area resident Onyer Reyno.
Hialeah Fire Rescue units responded to the scene just before 6 p.m.
Area resident Madison Canetti said she and her grandmother saw the smoke and flames from far away as they drove home.
“My grandma noticed a big, black cloud in the sky that was spinning,” said area resident Madison Canetti. “It looked almost like a tornado.”
Canetti said her grandmother lives next to the house where the fire started.
“My first thought was, ‘My grandpa was still home,'” she said, “so I was just worried about getting him out of the house.”
According to people who live in the neighborhood, an efficiency located in the back of a house caught on fire.
7News has learned a family lives there.
“What I did notice is that the electrical lines caught on fire,” said Reyno.
Firefighters said no one was seriously injured, but they did treat a woman who is dependent on oxygen and had fainted. She was never taken to the hospital.
Officials said there was a sense of urgency about this fire because there were propane tanks at the scene. Firefighters were concerned the flames could spread to nearby homes, particularly because the houses on the block where the fire broke out are very close to one another.
Investigators have not confirmed which structure caught fire, and they are trying to determine exactly where and how the flames started.
“It was hard to tell, ’cause the flame was so big. I couldn’t tell where exactly it was coming from,” said Canetti.
Canetti said her family cannot stay in their own home next door for the time being.
“I know that [firefighters] told my mom that we have to wait at least 24 hours, just because of the smoke and everything,” she said. “It’s not safe to be in the house.”
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