As Hurricane Milton lashed through Orlando, a house fire triggered by a downed power line broke the nighttime stillness in the 5100 block of Jeannine Court. The Orlando Fire Department confirmed that a local firefighter sustained injuries while combatting the blaze. According to WESH, the firefighter was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center and is listed in stable condition. The human occupants were unharmed, but sadly, two cats did not survive the fire.
The fire was reported to have started around 11:30 p.m. yesterday, and firefighters arrived to find the dwelling's roof consumed by fire, crews were able to extinguish the fire but not before tragedy struck in the form of the firefighter's injury and the loss of two pets, neighbors recall the sequence with alarm, recalling sounds of electrical popping shortly before the blackout and subsequent blaze, "We just heard some pops, the light had already gone out — the power went off from the transformer," one neighbor recounted in an interview with ClickOrlando, "My daughter went out to see what was going on and she started screaming 'Fire!'".
The Orlando Fire Department confirmed that no additional injuries were reported. They have not provided more details about the fire, and the investigation is still underway as the community starts to recover.
