A man and his dog were found dead inside a condominium unit in Lauderhill after a welfare check turned up their bodies late Thursday night. Residents say the discovery came amid signs of an apparent fire inside the home, though it remains unclear what caused the deaths or how the blaze may have started.
According to WSVN 7News, Lauderhill Police units arrived around 9:30 p.m. Thursday and found the man’s body inside the unit, with firefighters responding a short time later. The station reported the location as the Hidden Forest condominiums, along the 4200 block of Northwest 19th Street. CBS News Miami, meanwhile, placed the incident in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Lauderhill just west of Route 441.
Dog Also Found Dead Inside the Unit
Residents told the station that a dog was also found dead inside the unit, and that the animal’s body was still there as of Friday morning, per the same account. The circumstances surrounding the dog’s death were not detailed in either report.
Homeowners said it appeared as though a fire had taken place inside the condo, and that it may have started in the kitchen before spreading to the living space, according to CBS News Miami’s reporting. That account has not been independently confirmed, and the station said it had reached out to Lauderhill police for more information.
Rental Arrangement and a Welfare Check
The condo’s owners told the outlet that they had rented the unit to a woman, and that a man had been staying there with her. The owners said the woman reached out to them because the man had stopped answering her phone calls after she went out of town, the report notes — a detail that appears connected to how the welfare check was initiated.
Neighbors also told CBS News Miami that they had reported hearing a smoke alarm going off and smelling smoke one day before the bodies were discovered. It is not clear from the available reporting how that earlier report relates to the timeline of the fire or the deaths.
No official statement from Lauderhill police or fire officials had been included in the reporting as of Friday, and the identities, ages, and cause of death for the man and the dog have not been released.
