Apartment fire kills infant, displaces dozens

LAUDERHILL, Fla. (WSVN) -- A fire at a South Florida apartment building has killed an infant and displaced dozens of families.

"It was a lot of flames, people were running around, a lot of smoke. It was horrible," said Arlinda Muniz, who lives at the complex.

It was chaos inside The Falls of Inverrary apartment building Monday night, as the fire ripped through Building 100 just before 9 p.m. "It was bright orange and red flames just shooting out of the sky, out of the apartment," said Julie Brody, who also lives at the complex.

"It was a lot of a smoke and there were people running around, and you here kids screaming and a woman screaming. Then you heard a big blast, and then there were flames coming out from the front door," added Muniz.

Lauderhill Fire Rescue responded to the three-alarm fire along Inverrary Drive and South Fall Circle Drive. "The fire was in a location where it was tough to get fire hoses back there. It was quite a long stretch," said Lauderhill Fire Rescue Chief Marc Celetti.

Firefighters entered Unit 401, where the fire began, and found one person dead. They later confirmed that the victim was a child. "People were crying, and people were cold. They didn't know what was going on, what had happened. We knew it was a fire, we knew it was bad, and that's really all we knew," said Brody.

Authorities evacuated the entire building, while people waited inside of a bus for assistance from the Red Cross. "At this point, we have 50 people that are sheltered in a Broward County bus right now. We're waiting for the building official to come out and determine what portions of the building will be safe to return," said Celetti on the night of the fire.

Family and friends are saying that the fire possibly started as the result of candles burning in Unit 401, where the power had been turned off. Fire investigators have not confirmed the cause of the fire, however. A cadaver dog was brought to the scene the following morning in case there were more victims.

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