West Park house explosion: 911 calls capture chaos, frantic moments after blast levels home
FORT LAUDERDALE -- Officials on Friday released the 911 emergency calls that poured into Broward dispatchers after a house in West Park was leveled by an overnight blast three days ago.
"Emergency! Emergency, emergency," one man shouted. "Explosion."
One stunned woman who was driving by at the time of the explosion called, frantically telling the dispatcher, "A house exploded! I was caught in the collision."
Investigators are still searching for what caused the explosion at the home on SW 20th Street .
The blast sent four people who were inside the home at the time of the blast to local hospitals, including 8-year-old Rodinski Belval, who survived but spent three days receiving medical care at Memorial Regional.
He suffered burns on his face and leg.
"I was getting burned and my mother grabbed me," he said Friday. "And she got me out."
The boy's mother, Rodeline Joseph, remains hospitalized at Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital with severe burns while his 14-year-old sister is also hospitalized there for treatment of burns. The siblings' grandmother was also seriously burned during the incident.
The blast sent shockwaves among relatives and the neighborhood.
"I thought they were dying," said Renette Ledix when she heard her family members had been inside the home when it went up in flames. "When I see the video, I thought God didn't want them to die."
Firefighters said it was a gas explosion but when CBS News Miami spoke by phone to Renes Ledix, who owns the house, he said he is not sure what caused the blast.
"I don't use gas," he said. "I use electric only."
With days before the Christmas holiday, West Park Commissioner Joy Smith arrived Friday to deliver food to neighbors whose homes are located near the scene of the blast.
Some of the homes lost their windows and doors and three homes were red tagged and deemed unlivable.
Said Smith about the food delivery: "It won't solve all the problems but it's Christmas."