Three people were displaced from their homes after a fire erupted at the Eastwood Mobile Home Park in Hallandale Beach, with Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue responding to the scene at about 4:45 a.m. The fire occurred at 42 Coconut Avenue, across the street from Gulfstream Park, where about 40 firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke and flames coming from one of the mobile homes. No injuries were reported, though one person required assistance from the Red Cross.
“Two adjacent mobile homes also sustained flame impingement from the primary structure,” a Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesperson said in an email. Firefighters aggressively attacked the fire and were able to save much of the two exposed neighboring homes, according to authorities. The flames started in one mobile home, and crews helped evacuate a sleeping woman from the trailer next door.
One of the victims, 79-year-old Ukrainian national Vasyl Shkavolyak, showed the only possessions he has left, all of which fit into a single plastic bag. He said he smelled smoke shortly before 5 a.m., and the smell quickly consumed him. “I go out the window, but in my room,” Shkavolyak said.
“The people start breaking the window to take him out,” neighbor Helen Ruiz Castro said. Video from neighbors watching outside showed the bright orange flames lighting up the area. “I was scared because my grandma lives right next to it and I was worried about that,” Ruiz Castro said.
“Everyone was scared, worried,” another neighbor, Francisco Barreiro, said. Firefighters have since extinguished the blaze, with first responders indicating that much of the two neighboring homes were preserved despite the intensity of the fire. The Eastwood Mobile Home Park sits directly across from Gulfstream Park, a well-known horse racing venue in Hallandale Beach.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue. The three displaced residents are receiving assistance as they work to rebuild their lives after losing their homes in the early morning blaze.