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A man who took his dog out for a walk around the block Saturday night returned home moments later to a raging inferno with flames of up to 30 feet bursting through his roof.
The fire was so bad, it destroyed the home. "There's no positive to this,” said homeowner Dave Rudra, who watched his home of 10 years go up in flames. “I don't know what's going on."
Police and fire arson investigators spent the day Sunday sifting through the house, looking for evidence to help them identify what caused the fire. Chief Jorge Mara, with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, said the fire had been so large, firefighters needed to make sure it didn’t spread to other homes.
“There was such heavy flames involved, they felt it was too dangerous for guys to go in and make an initial interior attack so they decided to go to a defensive mode and protect the houses on either side," Mara said.
Sunday afternoon, Rudra returned to the home and spoke to investigators. He wanted to see whether he can salvage anything inside the home, including pictures of his three children.
"The only thing that I really care about is my children's pictures and the videotapes,” he said. “Everything else can be replaced, and that's all I want."
He said the fire left him with nothing but the pants he wore. "They've already torn it down with tractors and everything,” he said. “So even if there was anything left, it's all debris now.”
As Sunday's daylight disappeared and with damage and debris still left to sift through, fire investigators said they planned to return to the destroyed property Monday.
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Miami? Hmmm, note to self, turn off the Meth Lab burners before you walk the dog..............
I am so sorry. At least the man and his pooch are safe.
Well, apparently this didn't teach the guy how to get some perspective on life.
"There's no positive to this"? He's alive! Even his DOG is alive! And his children were not in the fire, either.
So as bad as it may seem on the material front, at least himself and his loved ones weren't being hauled out as barbecued side dishes and buried in closed coffins.
The only way a house burns that fast is with an accelerant. I believe this man may have poured gasoline all over his house and lit it on fire for insurance.
I see you didn't list your (nonexistant) bonafides as a fire investigator. Your opinion is unsupported and rather foolish.
One of the dangers of insurance.
Dawn, NYC is an avid crime show investigation watcher. I'll have you know, they sat for an entire evening and watched every SVU episode they could before frothing at the mouth and passing out in their own urine.
I'm wondering if a hit man got the wrong address.
Entirely possible someone set it too. We had a case where the guy had a crazy neighbor that was harassing him. He went out to the neighborhood hotdog place and the guy decided to light the house on fire. Took our the 3 family and the 6 family next door.
All because of one nut job.
sorry but MC Hammer story didn't allow comments..
http://www.thomasrobb.com/titi020713.htm
Him and his dog gone while a fire starts? Hmmmmmm, what a coincidence.
Kev - I thought the very thing you did, go for a walk and seconds later the entire house is gone, just like you sir - hmmmmmmm. , makes you stop and think how critical dogs truly are to us.
Take care
Timing is EVERYTHING, and i wonder who wanted to go for a walk, dogs are pretty amazing , their sense of smell is 10x greater then ours , literally, i might be off a little but you get my point, my heart goes out to him and his family, losing your home to fire must be awful , may god watch over you and your family during ,i'm sure,this trying and rebuilding times ahead :) " what a good boy his pup is !
How unfortunate this man has lost everything he cared about materially, but still has his beloved dog. It does seem quite remarkable that his home was so extensively involved in flames so quickly.If he is cleared of any wrong doing, and arson is suspected, they would look to unhappy family, neighbors perhaps, or recent gang pattern activities for clues.
Often in cases where this has happened, one doesn't have to look too far afield to discover the culprit. What remains after everything has been put out, can actually be quite telling.Even something as simple as built up creosote in chimneys mixed with older paper insulation in attics. Allowing a fire to consume a home extremely fast. For this man, he may have actually had a fire already smoldering, and not even known it when he left. Allowing it to creep some distance before flaring upwards and bursting out when it got enough oxygen finally. As some of the fireman working with us have even demonstrated out in the field, for education purposes.
Hopefully he has insurance, so he can start out fresh somewhere else. Especially at this time of year.
I agree, COOP... the history of dogs is a long tale of their alarm systems saving humans. Dogs were kept in ancient Greece & Italy because they could sense volcanoes & earthquakes long before their human owners. They have been known to wake families as smoke begins & pull children to safety from the path of cars, etc.
Windancersong is correct that electric wiring can cause a fire to smolder awhile & grow behind the walls. Also, this should be a reminder to everyone to have gas furnace & fireplaces checked every year.
From what I understand this is a common occurrence in Detroit. Homes are left destroyed and nothing is left but suspicions and insurance claims.
If only the Fire department had had Drones .. tisk tisk !