Space Heater Mishap Sets Duplex on Fire

​Northerners like to rag on Miamians when we complain about our cold, dropping comment like "You don't even know what cold is." Which is exactly the point. We don't know what cold is! It confuses us, and we are not at all prepared to responsibly deal with it. Many of our homes aren't even equipped with heating, which leads us to do stupid things. Which sometimes leads to things like homes catching fire.

A duplex at NW 98th Street and 23rd Avenue caught fire this morning at about 6:40 a.m., according to WSVN.

The culprit: a space heater.

Firefighters believe a space heater got caught on some curtains and began to spark which caused the blaze. No one was injured, and it seems the fire only majorly affected one side of the duplex.

"Today, as tragic as this fire is, no lives were lost but you have to be careful. These space heaters cause a lot of tragedy," Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Todd Garofolo tells WSVN. "You want to stay warm; the space heaters they make today are safe but some of the older ones you have to keep an eye on them."

This is, of course, a slightly more understandable mishap than earlier this year when a local family was treated for carbon monoxide poisoning after bringing a charcoal grill inside to keep warm.

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