Richard Burgher, a Key Biscayne FreeBee driver, had just settled in for a quiet Friday evening when disaster struck at his home in the Sans Souci section of North Miami.
Burgher has cruised the streets of Key Biscayne for nearly five years, taking riders to and fro. Now, those riders and friends are helping with expenses after a devastating fire Dec. 18, a blaze that sent his family into the street with little else besides the clothes on their backs.
Around 7:30 p.m., he came home, changed out of work clothes, and settled down to warm up some soup prepared by his wife. Suddenly, his son sounded the alarm.
“Dad, I smell smoke.” At first, Burgher thought it must be coming from the food he was heating in the microwave.
But his son insisted: “No, Dad, I know smoke different.” Moments later, a woman’s scream sounded from outside their second floor unit.
The hallway was filled with smoke. Downstairs, a door exploded off its hinges. “The door just blew off. Boom!”
As fire filled the building, Richard and his family hurried to safety. Emergency crews arrived and managed to douse the flames, but not before the structure suffered severe damage. “You will see the roof and everything torn up because they got the house to save, but it ain’t saved nothing,” he told the Independent.
Key Biscayners who know him have been helping out.
As of Monday, the fundraiser was nearing its $4,500 goal with more than 40 people chipping in. Former Mayor Mike Davey launched the drive, saying Burgher and wife Barbara are “salt of the earth people” who’ve touched many lives on the island. Barbara has worked as a local caregviver, Davey said.
How to help
Burgher seemed upbeat as he drove the FreeBee car Saturday, thankful for the help both from Key Biscayne — and his musical followers. His side hustle is as an artist known as ‘Doc Holiday,’ a singer with his own YouTube channel (no relation to the gunfighter from the old American West).
“I’m the singing one,” he said.
Editor-in-Chief
Tony Winton is the editor-in-chief of the Key Biscayne Independent and president of Miami Fourth Estate, Inc. He worked previously at The Associated Press for three decades winning multiple Edward R. Murrow awards. He was president of the News Media Guild, a journalism union, for 10 years. Born in Chicago, he is a graduate of Columbia University. His interests are photography and technology, sailing, cooking, and science fiction.