Dec 30, 2008 6:33 pm US/Eastern
Firefighter Remembers Dad Who Died In Weekend Fire
Former Jai Alai Star And Wife Perished Behind Burglar Bars
Son On Burglar Bars: "I Wouldn't Have Them On My House"
LITTLE HAVANA (CBS4) ―
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A house fire in Little Havana killed two victims and injured two others, including a firefighter.
CBS
Armando Gonzalez, Jr., is a handsome, strapping firefighter for the Hialeah Fire Department, a strong man who wept Tuesday as he remembered his father, killed in a blaze two days after Christmas.
"My dad was my hero, the best dad a guy could ask for," Gonzalez said, weeping.
His father, Armando Gonazalez Sr., died in a fire that swept through his Little Havana home Saturday morning. Gonzalez's wife, Daisy Jimenez, was also killed. His mother-in-law, Leida Jimenez, was critically injured.
The younger Gonzalez said his father encouraged him to become a firefighter, calling it the "most noble" profession he could pursue.
"He inspired me," Gonzalez said. "He always wanted better for me than he had for himself."
Gonzalez's father was a former star Jai Alai player from the late 60's to early 80's, when Jai Alai was in its glory days. In recent years he worked in retail management.
In his grief, Gonzalez said there was a tragic lesson to be learned from his father's death - a lesson about burglar bars. Burglar bars covered the doors and windows of the rental home where his father and stepmother died.
"As a fireman, we always consider that a hinderance," Gonzalez said. "I wouldn't have them on my house."
He said his father had worried aloud about the burglar bars on the house the week before he died.
"'I'm really scared,"' Gonzalez quoted his father as saying. "'If there's a fire, what am I supposed to do? You have to have a key, you have to unlock a door, there's a lot you have to do before you can get out.'"
Gonzalez said his dad was "like a brother, a best friend, who always gave me good advice."
He told
CBS4 reporter Gary Nelson that he was glad his father had lived to see him get married four months ago and to learn, just before Christmas, that there is a grandchild on the way.
"He told me, 'home is the best place in the world. Make sure that you cherish your family, cherish your wife'" Gonzalez said, crying.
Miami Fire-Rescue Lieutenant Ignatius Carroll told
CBS4's Nelson Tuesday that burglar bars on the house that burned Saturday impeded firefighters' efforts to get to the blaze and may have kept at least two of the victims from getting out.
Carroll said the cause of Saturday's fire remains under investigation, but that it appears accidental, perhaps caused by an electrical problem.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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