Teen saves brother in Liberty City house fire
by Tim Chapman, Miami Herald
A 16-year-old girl saved her brother from a Liberty City house fire early Monday morning. Sharonda Johnson smelled smoke when a fire broke out near the laundry room of their home at 1493 NW 55th St. around 4 a.m.
She got her brother Sharod, 11, to put on shoes and the two ran to call Miami Fire Rescue from another location. They waved down fire trucks a block away, which continued to the blaze.
According to Bill Lewycky, Miami Fire Rescue district chief, Sharonda’s quick thinking saved her and her brother’s lives. The main fire was put out in about an hour, but because of ‘’strange” roof construction that had one roof built over another, it was ”problematic” to control flare-ups.
Sharon Johnson, the children’s mother, was working at the Broward County Sheriff’s Office at the time. She said Sharonda, an honor student at Turner Technical High School, is “an excellent student who takes care of her brother very well.”
The family had rented the home a month ago with the intention to buy, and it had just undergone remodeling by the owner. “I will definitely be checking into whether they did this remodel with permits or not,” Sharon Johnson said. “My whole family could have been burned up.” The house is now uninhabitable.
