A woman and her daughter were lucky to not be inside their Kendall apartment early Thursday morning, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials said.
Officials believe a Molotov cocktail bomb was thrown into Crystal Cosco's apartment around 3 a.m. after fire officials had already put out a small kitchen fire at midnight.
"They threw a cocktail bomb or something in there. I didn't catch them in time," a man named Brian, who witnessed the incident, said. "Whoever it is that did this is obviously an enemy."
Firefighters said the blaze torched an apartment at 9710 Hammocks Blvd., but no one was seriously injured.
"We got here, and we had heavy smoke showing in the lower apartment," Capt. Javier Montesdeoca of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said. "We made entry and put out the fire."
Authorities said that the blaze is suspicious and that obvious damage adds to their suspicion. What flames didn't consume, officials said was waterlogged by firefighters' efforts to put out the flames.
Even some neighbors added their best efforts by using home fire extinguishers.
Martin Ruiz, who lives upstairs, called 911.
"It was just all black," Ruiz said. "The smoke and flames were coming from the first floor."
"We have witnesses saying that we had some people running away from the apartment or the building," said Montesdeoca.
Cosco and her daughter, who are being put up in a hotel Thursday evening by the American Red Cross, were not home at the time of the fire, but one neighbor was. He was transported by fire rescue to Kendall Regional Hospital for smoke inhalation and was later released.
Police ask anyone with information to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
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