A Cape Coral neighborhood was awoken late Monday night by fire crews arriving to fight an electrical blaze that engulfed a condominium.
The fire broke out just after midnight on Southeast 12th Court, just south of Hancock Bridge Parkway.
The owners of the unit where the fire started were not home. According to the Cape Coral Fire Department, it was started by an electrical strip in the unit’s patio, which was near oxygen tanks and gasoline cans.
This scene could have been so much worse if a quick-thinking neighbor hadn’t come to the rescue. He heard an explosion, then saw the fire. So, he raced to the building to save a 97-year-old man.
As soon as Myra Neyer and her husband, Frank, heard the explosion they acted as quickly as possible. “We all ran out here and when we look over our neighbor’s house was engulfed in flames,” said Myra.
So, Frank started running right towards the flames. “My husband ran straight across to make sure there was nobody in the units because it was so late,” Myra said. Luckily no one was inside the unit where the fire began but in the unit next door, lives a 97-year-old man.
The electrical strip that started the fire was in close proximity to oxygen tanks and gas cans, that’s why it exploded. Brian Guvangen says the blast woke his niece up.
“She came into the bedroom and told us a house that exploded and that’s when me and my wife decided to get up and come out and see what was going on and that’s when I noticed the fire trucks all the way around and then I seen the flames still coming out of the roof of the house,” Guvangen said.
Everyone in this neighborhood is happy that no residents were injured.
“It showed how well people work together when faced with a crisis, how neighbors stick together and get together and just want to save lives. They were willing to run into a burning building to save lives so it just says a lot about our neighbors and I’m really proud of them,” said Myra.
One firefighter injured their back at the scene and was transported to an area hospital.
It is unclear what happens next to the condo but what is clear is that the condo is now uninhabitable.