Fire Rips Through Miami Home, Displaces Four & Causes Evacuations

Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – An early morning fire has left a Miami family homeless, their house is a total loss after flames ripped through the structure.

FPL cut power to the neighborhood so first responders could go in.

The fire started around 2 a.m. at a home along NW 16th Street and 17th Avenue.

Multiple people were forced out by the flames, including the four people who lived in the house where the fire started.

Witnesses say the fire grew and exploded out of control quickly.

The house is located near several apartment buildings so that was a concern for firefighters who arrived on the scene to find people already evacuated including a man and his dog. The man got out with nothing, not even his clothes.

Three men and a woman were displaced by the fire.

No injuries reported, but several pets did die in the fire, according to authorities.

"I was asleep. They went in the house, my sister-in-law and she screamed 'fire'," explained Carlos Castellon, whose home caught fire.

Before rescuers could get there, Castellon said he was doing his best to battle the blaze on his own.

"I got up and didn't put on my shoes or nothing. I went outside and when I saw the fire, I grabbed the hose and I started spraying but then it would turn off here and then turn on more over there and then I would keep throwing water and then it went back that way and I'm like, 'I can't handle this'."

Castellon barely made it out of the fire. He and his family are being assisted by the Red Cross along with residents of the nearby apartment buildings who were also evacuated.

"They could see heavy smoke and flames pouring from what appeared to be the rear of the house and as they attempted to gain access to that house they encountered several vehicles that were actually on fire," said City of Miami Fire Captain Ignatius Carroll.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.