A teenage boy who was killed in an intense blaze at his home in Margate was trapped inside a back bedroom of the home when he died, according to a fire rescue report released Thursday.
Nearly 40 Margate Fire Rescue firefighters and EMS responded to the home in the 5000 block of Southwest Sixth Street about 4:30 p.m. Oct. 9 and were met with thick, black smoke billowing from all visible sides of the building. Witnesses immediately told them a child was trapped inside the bedroom, the newly released report said.
One witness told first responders that people were breaking the home’s windows in an attempt to get inside, according to previously released 911 calls. In one call, loud banging and clattering could be heard in between muffled exchanges. Someone could be heard repeatedly saying “no” and at one point, “He’s in the bathroom.”
Heavy smoke was pumping out of a partially-opened sliding glass door that led into the bedroom where the boy was last known to be, the report said, with downed, sparking power lines hanging next to it. Fuel cans and possible gasoline were on the ground outside of the door.
Firefighters who entered through the sliding door and through the front of the home with hoses “were met with extreme heat and zero visibility,” the report said. As crews tried to break into the home through a separate bedroom window, nearly all of the opening was covered by a headboard.
The conditions were challenging for firefighters, the report detailed:
Crews struggled to stretch hose lines through the yard around multiple parked cars;
Significant clutter in the home impeded attacking the fire and made it difficult to fully open all of the doors inside; and
A partial roof collapse forced firefighters to evacuate for a time.
Crews searching the home found one dog dead in a bathtub, the report said. Another dog got out unharmed.
Gianni Jackson, a 13-year-old student at Margate Middle School, was pronounced dead when firefighters found him.
Gianni’s grandmother and another adult were home when the fire erupted, Nina Culver, a neighbor who organized a GoFundMe, previously told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The grandmother was taken to the hospital but was released.
The fire rescue report does not provide the cause of the fire. The State Fire Marshal is investigating.
