3 Hurt, Dog & Turtle Saved, In SW Miami-Dade House Fire
SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE (CBS4) – Three people remain hospitalized Monday after a devastating house fire in Southwest Miami-Dade.
Norma Salomon jumped into action when she saw flames engulfing the home across the street at 6490 SW 25th Street in Southwest Miami-Dade on Sunday night.
"We looked out the window and we saw the fire so we called 911," she told CBS4's Natalia Zea.
Salomon said the fire was intense.
"The smell was terrible and the flames were above the house and you could see parts of the wood coming down, and it exploded the windows. There are no windows anymore."
Salomon knows the elderly couple and their son who live in the home.
"I was really scared for them, and I brought them over here and did what I could to help them out. They were really scared and they were crying and concerned."
Firefighters said they had to pull one of the men out from behind the home. The elderly woman and her son were taken to area hospitals for smoke inhalation. Salomon described the woman's injuries.
"Her hair, part of her hair was burnt, her face."
She said the woman's elderly husband suffered severe burns.
"The husband, the back was burnt, it was like a second-degree burn in the back, and the head, also in the arm. They were taking care of him and took him to Jackson."
More than 40 firefighters responded and quickly put the fire out. They even rescued the family's turtle, and the German Shepherd that belongs to Roy Rodriguez and Janet Maseo. The couple lives in an efficiency in the back of the house and weren't home when the fire broke out.
"They just told me the house caught fire and I came and my dog was still trapped in the back," Maseo said in tears.
"I'm just glad my dog is fine," said Roy Rodriguez.
Neighbors are grateful no one was killed and that firefighters kept the flames from spreading to other homes.
"I was thinking it might explode, maybe the kitchen or something and come over here, I was concerned about that too, my mother, I was really concerned about that," said Salomon.
Firefighters still aren't sure where the fire started in the house, and investigators are trying to figure out what sparked it.
As for the burn victims, all of them are expected to survive.
