Kitchen fire displaces 3 families at Miami-Dade apartment complex
MIAMI - A fire that started in a kitchen at an apartment complex in Southwest Miami-Dade County on Tuesday morning left one family without a home and forced another two families to spend Christmas Eve at a hotel.
The fire happened around 8:30 a.m. at Hammock Terrace, 15300 SW 106th Terrace.
The started on the second floor and affected the unit above and one below.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue quickly extinguished the blaze and remained on the scene to monitor and extinguish hotspots, while ventilation was established to clear the smoke.
Ada Diaz was cooking a pork shoulder for Nochebuena when the fire ignited.
"I'm trying to put the pork for Christmas Eve and .. and I went outside to look for my laundry and I saw the smoke," she said.
The woman said she only had time to rush out and one of neighbors called 911.
Diaz said she may not cook dinner on Christmas Eve again.
Orlando Garcia, who lives at the apartment below, said the fire didn't destroy his place but he can't stay there overnight.
"A lot of water," he said. "It doesn't look that bad but there's a lot of damage. A lot of water damage. All my Christmas presents wet completely
Renny Gonzalez lives in the apartment above.
"We got our families out," he said. "Just a little of smoke damage."
He told CBS News Miami material things are replaceable.
He and his family will spend the night at a hotel.
The affected families willl received money from American Red Cross to stay three nights at a hotel.
The fire remains under investigation.
Statistics show that unattended cooking is the No. 1 cause of house fires in the country.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue offers the following tips:
- Do not leave any cooking unattended
- Set a timer to remind you that you're cooking
- Keep an ABC-rated home fire extinguisher nearby in case of fire
