More than 300 tenants of an historic downtown apartment building known as The Congress were forced to find another place to stay Friday night after an electrical fire left the building uninhabitable.
A minor electrical fire sparked in a circuit room around 1 p.m. on Friday, and once subdued Miami Fire Department turned the building back over to maintanance and Florida Power & Light. However, two hours later, smoke covered the entire eighth floor, requiring the fire department to shut off power to the entire building and ask everyone -- young and old -- to leave.
About 30 firefighters then went floor-to-floor, carrying residents in wheelchairs down on chair stretchers. While police escorted tenants inside to prevent theft, FIU art student Karen Rayo was stuck outside sitting on the curb.
"Only one person is allowed per apartment," she explained. "So my mother-in-law is in there getting my stuff."
As Rayo’s mother-in-law came back from a climb to the 14th floor, Alex Shelley came out with a bag full of his clothes.
“I just grabbed everything and ran,” he said. “It was a mad house. It was nuts. It was insane."
While most tenants of the 1922 historic register building had arrangements for the night, others were receiving help from the Red Cross in the form of a hot meal and a hotel room. The Miami Fire Department was unable to tell residents if the problem would be fixed before Saturday night.
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"Yea,” said Rayo, “it's a hassle."
