Thread: Migrants in house fire in Florida

House Fire in Florida Kills 4, Injures 1
By Associated Press
Fri Apr 21, 11:03 PM

FORT MYERS, Fla. - A house fire trapped five Guatemalan migrants Friday, killing four and seriously injuring one as a relative who escaped screamed for them to get out and tried in vain to use a water hose to save them.

Police and fire officials responded at nearly 1 a.m. to the fire at one of two connected stilt homes. Six people were living in the back unit where the fire occurred, said Ken Dobson, spokesman for the Fort Myers Fire Department.

"There did not appear to be any smoke detectors in there, which certainly could have contributed to the tragedy," Dobson said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, although Dobson said it did not appear to be suspicious.

The dead were identified as Marcos Dino, 40; Santos Benito, 28; Gregorio Benito, 17; and Martin Hernandez, 17 or 18. The injured person, who was flown to a burn center at Tampa General Hospital, was identified as 17-year-old Mario Dino.

Some of the victims were related but authorities were not sure precisely how.

The name of the relative who escaped safely was not immediately released, but he told an American Red Cross official that he lost two brothers, a brother-in-law and a friend and that Mario Dino is his nephew.

All six people in the house were from Guatemala, said Chris Beddoes, director of emergency services for the Red Cross' Lee County chapter.

Beddoes told the News-Press of Fort Myers that the survivor, after waking up and smelling smoke, tried to get a hose on the fire, "but when he got back the fire was too big."

A neighbor, 39-year Lena Chance, said she saw a man "screaming for the other people" to get out and tried to use the water hose but it did not work.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All

Someone needs to not only investigate the fire but also how these illegals got to Florida, who housed them, and who employed them.

And the employers should pick up all the medical costs and funeral expenses, since they were the greedy bas*(&ds that profited from the illegal labor.