A man was rushed to the hospital after he was pulled from a house fire in West Miami Friday morning.
Crews responded to the home in the 5700 block of Southwest 12th Street shortly after 8 a.m. and found heavy flames and smoke, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials said.
Firefighters made their way into the home and found the victim suffering from serious burns. He was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition.
Neighbor and friend Demetrios Doumenis tried to rescue the man before firefighters arrived but the heat was just too much.
"You ever open an oven door and you're like standing right there and it is so hot? That is what it felt like 10 feet away," he said.
A cat made it out of the house but several others died.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
