More than 100 firefighters spent most of Wednesday evening on the scene of a large fire at a freight forwarding company near NW 70th Avenue and 22nd Street in Miami-Dade County.
Plumes of black smoke billowed out of the Transway warehouse for hours. Oscar Desmonteis said his wife was working inside the warehouse when the fire began with what she said was an explosion.
“They started trying to kill the fire with extinguishers, but it was too much,” Desmonteis said.
The freight forwarding company stores many items that are often shipped overseas. Firefighters said getting into the building to fight the fire was a challenge by itself.
“It seems there’s a pallet rack that seems to be in the way and we’re trying to move that because it’s full of freight,” said fire investigator Lt. Albert Carbonell. “Once that all melts down, it’s hard for us to move it from the outside in.”
Most of the building is destroyed, but relatives of Transway employees said the owner hopes to get back to business as early as Thursday.
“The owner expects to have tomorrow, start operating from the other end of the building which has not been touched by the fire or the water,” said Desmonteis.
Local
No one was injured in the large fire. Fire investigators said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
