Residents, cats rescued from apt. building fire

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) -- Rescue crews rushed to save several felines after a South Florida apartment building caught fire.

The blaze broke out inside a first-floor unit of an apartment building, located at 1180 SE 4 Ave. at around 6:30 p.m., Monday.

The flames quickly spread throughout the structure. "I looked out my back window, and I saw the building over here behind us on fire," said resident Janelle Cunningham, who helped rescue several people from the fire. "We went upstairs, and we were banging on doors. Nobody was answering the doors, so we went around the back of the building and started yelling, and that's when we saw people. They came out to the window to see what we were yelling about, and we got them out."

Cunningham also helped a female resident and her cats get out of her apartment unit. The female cat and several three-day-old kittens received an oxygen treatment at the scene. The pet owner, Paulette Souza, said, "I'm so glad they made it, because I thought that they would be dead by now, that the smoke would kill them, but no. They are all alive."

Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue units responded to the scene and worked aggressively to put out the fire.

Crews extinguished the flames in about 20 minutes.

Cunningham said she does not consider herself to be a hero, but she just followed her instincts and helped her neighbors get out of the burning building. "You just want to make sure that nobody's in there," she said, "and if you can get them out, get them out. I don't feel like I'm a hero. Hopefully, somebody would do that for me if my apartment building was on fire."

A resident was taken to North Broward Medical Center suffering from burns.

The fire marshal is now investigating the cause of the fire. The American Red Cross is assisting any displaced residents.

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