A Cooper City residence was engulfed in flames yesterday morning, in an incident that has left a family's home in ruins. Authorities believe an air fryer, left unattended, may have sparked the blaze that rendered the family's domicile uninhabitable. According to Broward County Fire Rescue units, who responded to the emergency near South Pine Island Road and Southwest 87th Avenue, all residents and pets managed to escape without injury.
The fire broke out after the homeowner had returned from dropping her children at school. "I was sweeping the front yard and then I heard the fire alarm. When I go in through the garage door, I open the door and my dog is in the cage in the kitchen and my air fryer is on fire and it was already spreading into the stove, into the cabinets," the homeowner recounted in an interview with NBC6. She managed to save her pet and flee the house, which is now terribly damaged by the conflagration.
The aftermath of the fire was captured from the sky by Chopper 6, showcasing firefighters battling the smoke billowing from the home located on the 8000 block of Southwest 57th Manor. The images obtained by NBC6 from the homeowner show a kitchen gutted by the flames, with the ceiling collapsed onto the floor. The homeowner told NBC6 she had used the air fryer to heat up pizza and hadn't touched the stove, leading her to believe the appliance was the fire's point of origin.
Broward Sheriff's Fire Rescue Chief Michael Kane, confirming there were no casualties, emphasized the need for caution when using air fryers. "Certainly you don’t want to leave it unattended, at least not for a long period of time. Most air fryers have a timer but some of those timers could be quite long, an hour or more," Kane said, in a statement obtained by NBC6. He recommended, "I would recommend checking that air fryer every couple of minutes while your food is cooking. I certainly wouldn’t leave the house while you have something in the air fryer cooking because, if you do have a mishap, you may not catch it in time." The Red Cross has stepped in to assist the family, which includes three children, as the official cause of the fire remains under investigation.
