Body found inside Miami house after fire

Neighbors reported hearing explosion

MIAMI ā€“ A body was found inside a house that caught fire late Wednesday night in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood.

The fire started at a house on Northwest 53rd Street shortly before 10:30 p.m.

Miami Fire-Rescue Lt. Ignatius Carroll said firefighters quickly extinguished the flames and discovered a body inside a bedroom.

Carroll said there were three men and two women inside the house at the time. He said four people got out, but one of the men did not.

Neighbors who called 911 reported hearing an explosion.

"I was sitting in the room with my baby at the time and there was just this huge explosion," Felicia DeJean told Local 10 News.

DeJean said she could see the light from her window.

Neighbors said the survivors were panicked in the street pleading for help.

"Yeah, there was a woman screaming," Caitlin Wiggins said. "(She) just kept screaming and screaming."

Nearly 12 hours after the fire started, the body of the man killed in the fire was carried out of the house through a giant hole in the wall.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but investigators spent much of the morning focusing on the plumbing work and a white box just below the hole in the wall.

"We did notice some unusual signs inside the house," Carroll said.

The American Red Cross is assisting the residents.