A young father died Sunday, marking the fourth and latest death in the aftermath of a fire at a southwest Miami-Dade home last month.
Leroy Larose, 22, died a day after his 4-month-old son Legend and his girlfriend, 19-year-old Rukiyah Kendrick, were buried. The child's 70-year-old great-grandmother also died in the Jan. 21 fire.
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"They were the perfect little family. They were so beautiful," said Charlene Brooks, Kendrick's aunt.
For Brooks, the past few weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions.
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"Everyone is hurting right now," she said. "Everyone is down."
The fire broke out at her niece’s home in the 101500 block of West Circle Plaza in West Perrine, killing Legend Larose and his great-grandmother. Days later, Kendrick died in the hospital after suffering second and third-degree burns.
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"It’s hard. It’s hard, but we know we’re gonna get through this," Brooks said.
The latest gut punch came Sunday, a day after burying her niece and great nephew, when Brooks got the news that Leroy Larose had died.
"Bam, it was like the same thing. It was like the same call," she said. "'We’ve done all we can do,' we just had to accept what God has allowed."
Brooks said not only has it been hard dealing with the back-to-back losses, but she works for a funeral home and has had to plan each of their services.
"Yesterday, I had a moment," she said. "As I looked up there at the board, I saw mom, dad, and baby, and I broke."
For now, Brooks has been leaning on her faith to pull through.
"I said, God, you gotta get me through this. I gotta be strong for them. I gotta be strong and that’s how I deal with it," she said.
Investigators believe the fire may have started in one of the bedrooms of the home, and they’re still trying to determine the cause.
