Orange County Family Displaced by Duplex Fire

By Orlando Personal Injury Attorney on January 5, 2018

Only three days before Christmas, a family in Orange County was forced from their home after a fire unexpectedly broke out and began to consume the building where they lived. Reports from the Orange County Fire Department say that it was shortly after 1:30 in the morning when firefighters were called to a duplex on Washington Street. When they arrived, they found that one of the units in the duplex was being rapidly consumed by an aggressive fire.

The call to the fire department came after one of the inhabitants of the duplex woke up to loud crackling sounds. These were followed by the screams of the inhabitants grandmother. By this time, all of the people in the home were awake and rushing through the thickening smoke and heat, trying to gather what belongings they could before stumbling out into the night.

Taylor, a 17-year-old, was one of those inside of the unit. She told reporters that she believed she was going to die during the ordeal due to the the amount of smoke and her inability to breathe. Fortunately, Taylor as well as the rest of her family managed to escape from the unit. In total, four people and one dog safely fled from the unit without suffering much more than bad coughs due to inhaling smoke.

The Orange County Fire Department said that no one who emerged from the unit was injured in the incident and that the fire department itself was able to arrive in enough time to extinguish the blaze before it spread to the other unit of the duplex.

At the time of this writing, it is believed that the Red Cross is offering the displaced individuals support while they work out where they will live now and how much of their belongings can be salvaged. The initial report on the fire stated that the reasons behind its beginning were currently unknown and that a full investigation was being launched in order to pinpoint the exact reasons behind the nearly-deadly blaze.

As more details on this case emerge it is believed that the Orange County Fire Department will issue additional statements.

James O. Cunningham

Since 1977, personal injury lawyer James Cunningham has provided effective legal advocacy to people who are injured through the negligent actions of another person or entity throughout the Central Florida area. He fights to obtain recoveries for his clients’ physical and emotional pain and suffering and pursues his clients’ personal injury cases with a commitment to excellence and impeccable preparation.