NORTH MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida family is grateful to be alive after a fire destroyed almost everything inside their home on Mother’s Day weekend. Now they’re asking for the community’s help.
7News cameras captured Micaela Herrera, her mother and her sisters outside the charred, boarded-up property in North Miami Beach, Saturday.
The structure has been deemed unsafe to live in.
Their belongings, soaked by Friday and Saturday’s heavy rainfall, now fill the front yard.
“My daughter, my sisters, they had only the pajamas they had on,” said Herrera.
The blaze has forced the family to move into a small trailer next door while they figure out what to do next.
“Black smoke started coming out, black smoke, I couldn’t see inside,” said Herrera.
Flames ripped through their home this past weekend, reducing a place filled with memories to ash.
“It was just chaos, and my mom was crying,” said Herrera. “She lost out everything, everything she worked for.”
Whatever the family could salvage is now under tarps. Since they do not have anyplace else to store the items, most of them are waterlogged.
“The most that it hurt me was when I had to tell my sisters that they had lost everything,” said family member Jesica Amarant.
The family was able to escape safely, but their pets were trapped inside.
Herrera said she tried to bust through all the windows to rescue their dog and cats but the flames were too intense.
“Then I went around, I broke the other windows, I broke the kitchen windows. I couldn’t, nothing. I couldn’t see them,” said. “Then they brought out the animals. It was already too late. They were dead.”
The family may have lost everything, but they said they’re determined to get through this hard time together, thankful to have each other.
The family has set up a GoFundMe page. If you would like to make a donation, click here.
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