Three Family Members Remain Hospitalized After House Fire

Bradenton FL

04 December, 2020

2:24 PM

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BRADENTON, FL — After losing everything in a house fire on Thursday, three members of the Lopez family remained hospitalized, said Cesar Garcia, a spokesperson for the family. Parents Adrian, Sr. and Francisca Lopez and their 23-year-old son, Adrian, Jr., remain at Blake Hospital Friday, though Garcia doesn't know the extent of their injuries. Their 25-year-old daughter, Karina, wasn't home at the time of the fire. After an explosion at 2 p.m., Cedar Hammock Fire Rescue and other local agencies battled a blaze at their home at 804 29th Ave. West into Thursday evening. The father and son were taken to the hospital shortly after the explosion, Garcia said, while Francisca was brought to Blake several hours later. A Cedar Hammock firefighter was also taken to Manatee County Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries during the fire. CHFR had been in the area of their home since around 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, initially responding to reports of a natural gas leak in the 2900 block of 9th Street West, Chief Kyle Bradshaw said. "There was an odor of gas detected and fire department units set up a perimeter to establish a hot zone." TECO gas also responded to locate the source of the gas leak. Though they noticed the gas was coming out of the sewer lines, it was "pretty difficult for them to pinpoint where the leak was," Bradshaw said. While TECO employees were searching for the source of the leak, the explosion occurred at 804 29th Ave. West. Since Cedar Hammock already had fire units in the area, firefighters quickly repositioned their equipment to battle the blaze, Bradshaw said. The Manatee County Sheriff's Office did a reverse 9-1-1- call telling those living in the area to evacuate or shelter in place, he said, though he's unsure what time that alert was sent out. Florida Power & Light also shut down the electric grid in the area "to eliminate mission sources," Bradshaw said. This left around 1,000 homes without power. After the fire was contained, TECO and Manatee County Public Works worked into early Friday morning to repair the sewer and gas lines. "The house was completely destroyed" in the fire, Garcia said, and the Lopez family lost everything. "It's very unfortunate right now given the situation with everything going on. 2020, right? It's been very, very difficult for them." He added, "Everything happened so quickly and it's so fresh that the family is extremely overwhelmed." Community leaders have organized a GoFundMe fundraiser to assist the family, Garcia said. All money raised will go directly to them. "It's amazing to see how quickly the community came together," he said. "It takes a village, right? We're doing everything we can as fast as we can to put this together and make sure they have everything they need." A listed of needed items will eventually be released, Garcia added. "But obviously, they lost their home and most of their belongings. They'll need everything, clothing, things like that." He said that while Red Cross was in the area Thursday afternoon, the organization was busy helping neighbors evacuated because of the gas leak and haven't directly reached out to the Lopez family. "It was such a chaotic scene," he said.