Fire Destroys Football Equipment At Miami Edison Senior High School
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The Miami Edison Senior High football team is devastated.
The field house storage facility that housed nearly all of their practice gear was charred and gutted over the weekend.
"Blocking dummies, benches, field markers, cones we lost a lot of things like that the kids need for practicing," said Principal Leo Maycock.
Maycock says he got the call that the school was on fire on Sunday. When he arrived, he find out it was the field house and saw thick black smoke and flames shooting out of the building.
"Rescue trucks everywhere, police officers, firefighters everywhere, all the damage you see behind me right now it was really really bad," he said
It was a similar blow for the players, many who'd just arrived back from college tours.
"You're not actually there to see it happen and everything going away and you're not there to do anything about it," said Keith Moore.
Firefighters knocked the flames down quickly, quick enough said Maycock that they were able to spare the weight training room in the back from the fire that swept through the building.
Investigators said they found no evidence that the fire was intentionally set.
Meantime, Maycock says it is a setback but it's not over, the fire will be their fuel.
"They're hurt mentally right now, but they are very strong players, we're going to persevere through all this still overcome all these obstacles right now, gonna make a way from no way," he said.
It didn't take long for the community to rally for the school, with the Miami Dolphins quickly jumping in to show support.
Dolphins President and CEO Tom Garfinkel tweeted that the team would be teaming up with Baptist Health to replace the damaged and destroyed equipment.
Happy to announce the @MiamiDolphins together with @BaptistHealthSF will be replacing this equipment for @MiamiEdisonFB - @NatMoore89 's high school https://t.co/zgnRbVIQgc
— Tom Garfinkel (@TomGarfinkel) June 24, 2019
Former Dolphins receiver Nat Moore, who is currently the team's SVP of Special Projects and Alumni Relations, played football for Miami Edison as a teen.