“It was so fast, insanely fast’: 4-year-old boy, dog killed in Cocoa house fire, officials say

COCOA, Fla. — A 4-year-old boy was killed in a deadly house fire Friday night in Cocoa, according to Brevard County officials.

The fire happened around 8 p.m. at a home on Kathi Kim Street.

Neighbors told Channel 9 that it happened quickly.

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“There was a lot of smoke and it was very scary,” said neighbor Cynthia Ridolf. “It just breaks me up. I couldn’t sleep last night.”

In the moments before flames shot through the roof, a man who lived here ran out of the house and pleaded for help.

Before firefighters arrived on the scene, neighbors broke at least one window and searched two rooms trying to find the trapped child.

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“It was so fast, insanely fast,” said neighbor Nicholas Quigley. “He was freaking out, screaming and like saying help. And one of the other neighbors was there. And they were trying to, I guess there was still someone in the house, and they were trying to get them out. And he told me to call 911.”

While neighbors tried to get to the boy, the smoke and flames from this fire were too strong and it took firefighters entering to reach the child.

“I thought the child had gotten out. The father was sitting in my driveway but the child was still in there,” Ridolf said. “They pulled the child out about 10 minutes later. One of the firefighters had the child and was carrying him.”

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First responders performed CPR and tried to save the 4-year-old, who later died at the hospital.

“I’m very sad for the family. To lose a child is terrible and they lost a beautiful dog too,” Ridolf said.

Ridolf told Channel 9 that this awful scene unfolded while the boy’s mother was at work.

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The cause if the fire remains under investigation.

See a map of the scene below:

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