A 93-year-old woman and her daughter faced a devastating emergency when their Northwest Miami-Dade home caught fire due to a space heater malfunction on yesterday morning. WSVN reports that firefighters arrived just after 10 a.m. to find thick black smoke.
The fire began from a space heater, which the family believes caught fire due to a drop in temperatures. "Just a lot of devastation and brokenness," Tawshana Brown, the great-granddaughter of the homeowner, told NBC Miami. Firefighters quickly entered the building and extinguished the flames, preventing the fire from spreading to neighboring homes.
The fire left the two women, a mother and daughter, without a home. The house was uninsured, and the family faces a total loss. The women were unharmed but shaken.
"On arrival, our crews did a primary search, and we found no victims in the structure," said MDFR Capt. Maregieto Gonzalez in a WSVN report.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokesperson Erika Benitez advised the public on safety precautions, stating, "Keep the portable heating units at least three feet away from anything that can possibly burn and avoid the use of extension cords with space heaters," in a statement obtained by NBC Miami.
The American Red Cross has been contacted to assist the family. The investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.
