Early this morning, three people were hospitalized after a blaze ripped through a Hollywood apartment, with both a child and an elderly woman among the injured. The fire, which ignited at a two-story apartment building located at 415 South Ocean Drive, required swift action from local authorities to quell the flames and provide aid to the victims. NBC Miami reports that an injured man was found outside of the property seeking help as emergency services arrived on site.
As the fiery ordeal unfolded, firefighters faced dueling tasks of extinguishing the burning corner unit and rescuring residents trapped within. A woman and a child were retrieved from the apartment as the rescue operation escalated. According to Local 10, all three people affected — the aforementioned man, the woman, and the child — were transported to Memorial Regional Hospital. The trauma faced by the child was severe enough to warrant a subsequent transfer to the Miami Burn Center.
Joseph Simpson, a neighbor caught amidst the calamity, recounted his own experiences to NBC Miami, describing how he was roused from sleep by an acrid smell. "It smelled like burnt rubber and burnt electricity, like a real foul smell. Literally woke me up out of my sleep," Simpson relayed. The early detection enabled him to take action, "I opened my door, ran out on top of my roof. I looked and saw smoke emerging from the bottom of my building. I grabbed my dog... went to each one of my neighbors, banged on their doors, made sure they would wake up."
Witness testimony suggests that an intimate story lies behind the victims; the affected unit was home to a family, reportedly consisting of a grandmother and her grandchild who has autism. Simpson described the harrowing scene of witnessing a child receiving CPR before being rushed to the hospital. He said the child’s father was covered in ash.
Details on the cause of the fire remain under investigation.
