Firefighters sliced and pounded their way into a vacant building after someone reported flames at a vacant building in Liberty City Friday morning.
Investigators suspect squatters were taking shelter in the corner, two-story unit, when somehow a fire started by accident just before 9 a.m. in the building off NW 65th St and 12th Avenue.
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"It took the units about 15 minutes to bring this fire under control," said Captain Ignatius Carroll of the Miami Fire Department.
Daniel White told NBC6 he knows the couple who was living in the unit.
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"I mean, that's traumatizing," he said. "Just cool people as far as I know."
On the ground, White recognized a Bible that sparked up again. He said he loaned it to his female friend who had been living there with her boyfriend. A city employee stamped out the flames.
White thought the place must be cursed. "All of a sudden this happened," he said.
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Captain Carroll said metal barriers meant to keep people out of the building could have been a death sentence for the two people they rescued.
"There was one woman that was inside that was severely burned, she was assisted out and she was transported to Ryder Trauma Center in serious condition."
Captain Carroll said the man inside with her was not severely hurt, but he was still taken to the hospital as well.
