A person believed to have fired a gun and started a three-alarm blaze at a Miami apartment building Monday morning — where a building employee was found critically wounded — was in police custody, officials said.
Miami Fire Rescue responded to the fire, which started on the third floor of the four-story Temple Court Apartments around 8:15 a.m. By Monday evening, the fire was under control, but firefighters were still working to put it out, Mayor Francis Suarez said at a news briefing Monday evening.
An unnamed person believed to have intentionally set off the blaze and fired a gun was in custody, Suarez said.
Everyone in the building was accounted for, and the property management company will put 43 people who were displaced up at a hotel for the next two weeks, he said.
A Miami Fire Rescue spokesperson, Lt. Pete Sanchez, said the building is "a wood frame structure," which explains "the intensity and the rapid spread of the fire."
"Our firefighters immediately went in and began to rescue over 40 residents that are mostly elderly, whether it was through balcony or front doors," Sanchez said at the briefing.
More than 70 firefighters and 38 fire trucks responded, Miami Fire Rescue spokesperson Iggy Carroll told NBC News.
There are multiple patients as a result of the fire, including a resident who was taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation. Three firefighters were also stable at a hospital where they were under "further evaluation"; two have since been discharged, Miami Fire said in an update.
A man with a gunshot wound to the torso was also found at the scene and taken to a hospital in critical condition, according to Miami Fire Rescue. Temple Court Management identified the man as one of its employees, NBC South Florida reported.
"We are still determining the cause of these events, and we are checking for other injuries. Police are investigating, and we will help in whatever ways we can,” Temple Court Management told the station. “We are grieved by all that has happened today, and our thoughts and prayers are with our team member and his family and residents of the Temple Court community.”
It's not clear where exactly the person who was shot was found, whether the wound was self-inflicted or whether the incident is related to the fire.
Video showed smoke billowing from the apartment building as firefighters tried to extinguish the fire from the outside. Firefighters had to fight the flames from outside because it was too dangerous to be inside, Sanchez said.
Miami Fire Rescue said, "The American Red Cross and Miami Police are assisting the residents with their needs and gathering information for accountability."
It asked residents in the area to stay indoors if they have respiratory illnesses.
The cause of the fire was not clear.
