A family of three, a police officer and several firefighters were hospitalized after they were overcome by toxic fumes at a home in southwest Miami-Dade County Thursday morning.
Firefighters responded to the home on Southwest 103rd Court after receiving reports of a strange chemical smell around 4:55 a.m., Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials said.
Firefighters say the chemical odor made the family, which included a teenager, and three firefighters sick. One Miami-Dade police officer was also taken to the hospital. All were expected to be fine.
The family's two dogs and a hamster were also placed in an ambulance but were OK.
"If we had passed out, we would've been gone," Christopher Hawkins, one of the victims, said.
Upon further investigation, authorities discovered a car left running in the garage, which left carbon monoxide in the home.
Hawkins was cooking and charging the car's dead battery in the garage but got distracted and forgot about the car, his mother-in-law, Rosita Black, told NBC 6.
"He didn't know anything until three or four this morning, when they were getting this woozy feeling," Black said.
