Three Miami-Dade Fire Officials on Leave Amid Probe of Deadly Training Incident

Aug. 29, 2024
Fabian Camero, 28, who was not a Miami-Dade firefighter, died of injuries during a live-burn drill in a building.

David Goodhue

Miami Herald

(TNS)

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue on Wednesday confirmed three of its employees have been placed on administrative duty as the investigation continues into the death of a firefighter’s adult son during a training exercise in June.

Fabian Camero, 28, died from injuries when a fire broke out in an empty Virginia Gardens four-story building June 21. Camero, the son of veteran Miami-Dade firefighter Francisco Camero, was not a member of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, but he was a certified emergency medical technician for a private ambulance company.

The investigation into the fire continues by the department’s arson detectives, Miami-Dade County Police and the state Fire Marshal’s office. For now, the department said that three of its employees are on desk duty pending the outcome of the probe.

“The incident is still currently under investigation. Three employees have been placed on administrative duty pending the completion of the investigation,” a Fire Rescue spokesperson said in an email Wednesday. “As this is still an ongoing investigation, we are not able to provide any other information at this time.”

James Reyes, Miami-Dade’s chief of Public Safety, told NBC 6 that the training exercise that day at the building located at 6596 Northwest 36th Street was not sanctioned by the fire department.

At the time of the incident, the building had been used for more than a month for firefighter training, but not for actually putting out fires using controlled burns. Rather, the building was restricted to search-and-rescue simulations, Virginia Gardens Mayor Spencer Deno told the Miami Herald in June.

The fire that broke out was a three-alarm blaze that sent several rescue workers to the hospital and shut down Northwest 36th Street for hours.

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