MIAMI (WSVN) - A mother was overcome with emotion after a fire ripped through her daughter’s home in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood.
City of Miami Fire Rescue units responded to the scene along Northwest 20th Street and Third Avenue, around 5 a.m., Tuesday morning.
Firefighters temporarily blocked nearby roads as they battled the blaze.
Officials said the fire was out in about 15 to 20 minutes.
“I’m hurt, but I’m praising my Lord because God’s in control,” said homeowner Yolanda Thompkins.
“She lost everything, but it’s replaceable,” added Antionette Hixon, Thompkins’ mother. “Her spirit got me strong. She still praise Him. She still says, ‘Thank you, Lord.’ I still say, ‘Thank you, Lord.'”
Hixon said her daughter had a candle on and believes that’s what caused the blaze.
“She blew it and kept going and never looked back to see if it was out, and it probably wasn’t out,” she said.
Investigators are still working to determine if that was in fact the cause of the fire.
“She had a lot of items inside that contributed to the quick spread of the fire,” Miami Fire Rescue Capt. Ignatius Carroll said. “The amount of fire damage that it was warrants the fire investigator to come out here just to confirm that’s what it actually was.”
Officials said Thompkins left her home at around 4:30 a.m. to go to work.
When she returned, the home was on fire.
“With the amount of fire load that was inside the house and some stuff that she had around the doors, it made it a little difficult for crews to actually get through,” Carroll said. “Our main concern was to make sure that nobody was in the house, and she helped to expedite our fire attack by letting us know that nobody was in there, so we were able to concentrate more of our efforts on keeping that fire from spreading to the neighboring homes.”
7News spoke with a neighbor who said he called emergency crews.
“I smelled smoke, and I called 911, and it just burst into flames,” Elvis Stevens said. “I heard a guy yell, and I tried to kick the gate in, and I couldn’t do it. Then the police showed up.”
Video from the scene showed a charred second floor room with its window partially broken.
As Hixon’s daughter works to recover from her losses, she’s praising the Man above that nobody was home when the flames erupted.
“My God. Oh Jesus,” she said. “He let us leave out. He let us get out. That’s all I could say.”
No injuries were reported.
Thompkins’ sister told 7News that Thompkins’ homeowner association cancelled their policy, so she wasn’t covered at the time of the fire.
Click here to donate to the Thompkins’ GoFundMe campaign.
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