By Jennifer Lebovich
The Miami Herald (Florida)
Distributed by Knight/Ridder Tribune News Service
Copyright 2006 The Miami Herald
Zulma Rossi used the weekend to move furniture and boxes into her new, white-trimmed mobile home in Pompano Beach.
But Monday morning, there was little left of the home after fire tore through late Sunday night — the blaze sparked by boys playing with fireworks, fire officials said.
Inside the mobile home, “all is broken, all is black,” Rossi said. “I lost all inside the house.”
The boys were apparently shooting fireworks into the air within a few feet of the mobile home when one of the fireworks set fire to the roof, said Pompano Beach Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Brian Schafer.
“Someone saw the boys trying to put the fire out earlier, but the fire didn’t go out,” Schafer said.
Firefighters were called to the mobile home in the 3300 block of Northwest 16th Avenue shortly before 10 p.m.
The fire “does appear to be caused by fireworks, like bottle rockets,” said Lt. Joseph Schwartz of the state Fire Marshal’s Office.
The fire caused extensive smoke and water damage inside the home, Schafer said. Officials estimated the damage to the home at $80,000 and $50,000 damage to the contents, Schafer said.
“I don’t have nothing left,” said Rossi, who was moving into the home with her husband and three daughters after a year of planning.
“I don’t know what I am going to do,” she said.
No one was inside when the fire started.
Rossi was staying with family down the street while she was waiting for electricity and water to be turned on in her new home. She went outside when she heard the firetrucks.
“I saw smoke and fire, and I was looking for my house,” she said. “I looked at the house. It’s very bad.”
Rossi was grateful that no one was hurt.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident and no one had been charged late Monday.