87-year-old man grateful to be alive after his home erupts in flames in Miami Gardens

An 87-year-old retired school teacher is grateful to be alive after he was forced out of his home when flames sparked inside on Friday night.

7News cameras captured Edward Brown surrounded by loved ones after the flames left his Miami Gardens home severely damaged.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue units responded to the home fire in the area of Northwest 172nd Terrace and 27th Avenue.

Brown said he was frying fish at dinner time when the flames broke out after he finished cooking.

“I thought I had turned the burner off, and it had oil in it, and the oil caught on fire,” he said.

His home quickly filled with smoke, alerting neighbors who ran to his home and got him out safely.

Some neighbors tried to save the house before firefighters arrived by using a garden hose.

“He’s pulling his hose out from the back of the garden. He’s trying to help put out the fire, and this is like five minutes before fire trucks finally arrived,” said a neighbor.

“It was scary because the house has gas,” said another neighbor.

Fire officials said that despite the neighbors’ best efforts, the fire was too big.

“They did the best they could, but unfortunately, the fire was too overwhelming, so they couldn’t have done much. Even with us, it was a pretty tough push to get into the structure to put the fire out, so it was a pretty advanced fire,” said MDFR Capt. Gregory Lamarre.

It’s unclear how badly the home is damaged, but Brown said he was told the home’s ceiling came crashing down.

Brown says he’s lived in the home since the 1960s, and it’s all he has. He added he had just finished paying off his home and doesn’t have home insurance.

But now, he’s happy to have escaped without a scratch and will be staying with his son and other family members.

“Thank God I wasn’t scared. That’s what kept me under control. Other than God, everybody was concerned. I want to apologize. I didn’t mean to stir up the neighborhood like this,” said Brown.

Neighbors said they want to create a fundraiser for Brown in the coming days.