A fire that broke out in a third-floor apartment on Thursday afternoon led to the death of a 92-year-old woman and forced neighbors to flee a building engulfed in smoke.<\/p>\n
Cell phone video captured by a neighbor showed smoke billowing out of the apartment in Lauderhill shortly after the fire was reported.<\/p>\n
Olivine Morant, who lived in the apartment with her elderly mother, 92-year-old Adeline Morant, and her sister, was at work when she received a call about the fire and rushed home.<\/p>\n
“My sister called the fire in the building. She said call 911 I called 911,” Olivine Morant said.<\/p>\n
When Morant arrived, she was desperate to check on her mother but was kept out of the building.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been praying to God on my way when I got here, I was crying to God, and I asked him to let me go inside. I wanna see my mom. They said you can’t go inside,” Morant said.<\/p>\n
Tee Coop, a neighbor who lives across the hall from where the fire began, said she grabbed her young daughter and ran out when she smelled smoke.<\/p>\n
“By the time we turned, it was just black smoke. We couldn’t see anything. The hallway just disappeared before our eyes. It was like a movie,” Coop said.<\/p>\n
Morant said her 92-year-old mother was airlifted to the hospital. Once Morant arrived, she received a call with the tragic news.<\/p>\n
“The officer called to let me know that I’m sorry she has passed,” Morant said.<\/p>\n
Coop recounted her futile attempt to help the elderly woman.<\/p>\n
“I wish I could’ve helped her because the first thing that comes to my mind is the T-shirt that I put around me, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t see I need to breathe,” Coop said.<\/p>\n
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.<\/p>\n