2 cats, 2 birds die in Coral Springs house fire

Fire damages home, minivan

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. – Two cats and two birds died Monday night in a house fire in Coral Springs, the homeowner told Local 10 News.

The fire was reported about 8 p.m. at the home near Coral Springs Drive and Royal Palm Boulevard.

Coral Springs firefighters sprayed water in the garage to get the fire under control and used a ladder truck to fight the flames from above.

"There's a lot of factors that caused it to spread. There was a fairly moderate wind last night that didn't help the situation," Mike Moser, of the Coral Springs Fire Department, said. 

The homeowner, Michael Fine, said he first heard a noise in the garage and then realized that his house was on fire. 

"We ran out the back door. My dad was still in the garage trying to fight it, and we screamed for him to get out and he got out," Kayleigh Fine said. 

Michael Fine said he is grateful that his family's alive after escaping their home, but he is devastated at the loss of his two cats and two birds. Three other cats are still missing. One cat survived and is back with its owners.  

"I tried everything I could to rescue them," Kayleigh Fine said. "I got one out .I threw him out the door."

The fire was so intense that a part of a minivan in the front of the home was burned. The home has since been deemed unlivable.

A neighbor told Local 10 News that she had to go back inside her home because the smoke was too intense.

"I saw there were flames coming out of the garage, and the owner was out there blowing out the house, trying to hose it all off, trying to stop the fire. I was very sad for them," Michelle Spence said. "Their whole house was going up in flames -- their whole life."

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but the Fine family said authorities told them it started in the electrical box. . 

"They made it very, very clear that it was in the electrical box," Kayleigh Fine said. "It shot up to the attic and within seconds, the whole house lit up. There was nothing anybody could have done. There was no way to prepare for it. They did everything they could. I'm just glad my family's safe."

A GoFundMe page has been created to help the family.